Era Gold V (incl. PSU1 power supply)

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Era Gold V (incl. PSU1 power supply)

The Era Gold V Phono Stage

Heathrow 2005 Award Winner

The Era Gold V and Elevator EXP won the Best Phono Stage Under £1,000 Award at this years Heathrow Hi-Fi Show

Hi-Fi News 2004 Award Winner

The Era Gold V and Elevator EXP won the Hi-Fi News Best Phono Stage Award for 2004

Suitable for all Moving Magnet and High Output Moving Coil cartridges. It boosts and equalises the stereo cartridge signal to "Domestic Line-Level", which makes it suitable for use with Integrated Amplifiers and Receivers, Active and Passive Preamplifiers. It also compensates for the high frequency droop of the mastering studio's cutting machine, which puts back the music's harmonics you probably never heard before

Play Low Output Moving Coil using the Elevator EXP Head Amp pre-the Era Gold V for the ultimate uncompromising musical experience

The "full-blown" Era Gold V comes with the PSU1-24 Power Supply. Also offered is the entry level "Intro", which is supplied with a plug-top style power supply (Upgrades by buying the PSU1-24 when you're ready)

The Era Gold V Phono Stage:

The one reviewers return home to (by choice); The one they actually went out to buy; (or) the one they acquired because they refused to give it back (that's alright by us); It's an affair (sadly) conducted (by many) in secret - "Ah well, you gotta review the flash new stuff to sell mags" (some anonymous sources...)

The Era Gold V is our "plain Jane baby" that confounds the "Pomp(ous) and (never mind the) circumstance" brigade of the Hi-Fi industry. It's the one our dealers stock by choice rather than being forced to under contract (in fact that applies to our whole range). It's the one that'll always sound the best to the straight guy or gal - it needs no sensory assistance (substances) to be enjoyed (...that stuff makes anything lie). It needs no assistance from technical dope either - plug it straight into the wall - use coax for interconnects. The Era Gold V - it'll take 3-4 weeks to put your vinyl hearing right.

The Era Gold V looks simple inside because we found a chip that outperforms anything discrete. The chip has only one problem - some of them don't meet our stringent quality control (every piece is individually tested). So why do we use it? We scoured the planet for a replacement but nothing else makes the grade.

If anyone set out to copy us they'd: 1] have to sit down and solder them up themselves; 2] take a much slimmer margin; 3] Individually test each and every one; 4] have to buy calibrated broadcast specification test gear; 5] track down and import thousands of high grade audio capacitors so as not to loose the ephemeral signal; 6] copy also our PSU1 and jump through the hoops of the IEC and CSA (Canadian equivalent of USA Underwriters Laboratories) to get it approved; and 7] give up all hopes of becoming a millionaire!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you The ERA GOLD V

Technology

Suitable for moving magnet and high output moving coil cartridges. By inserting the Elevator EXP Head Amplifier between turntable and Era Gold V low output moving coil cartridges can sound great too.

The Era Gold V uses: 1] valve (tube); 2] video; 3] line-driver; and 4] computational logic design rules which have resulted in breathtaking speed and very low dynamic distortion. Because of this we've pulled-off (what the Hi-Fi industry considers) the impossible, doing the amplification and necessary EQ in one single operation. The Era Gold V is so fast that additional capacitive input loading just isn't necessary - it can keep up with the fastest and most extended cartridge frequency responses without inducing toothache.

We know you can't hear the video frequencies the amplifier op-amps and EQ circuit can reach, but the high frequency stability it imparts stops the performance being clouded by oscillation artefacts. It also means that leading edges hit the "control pin" far sooner so they don't go out of control - that applies to scratches too. To render the phase of a high note accurately requires a bandwidth ten times the highest audible frequency - to keep the harmonics in step and the whole performance sounding real. Bandwidth limiting always means there's a filter present - intended or not - and the steeper the filter, the higher the filter ripple. Ripple blurs and narrows the image - not so the Era Gold V.

There's stability at the bass end too. Our infra bass stabilization techniques stop the signal feeding back through the power rails, delivering it to your ears instead.

Through our use of the best audio coupling capacitors the World has to offer, there is no DC at all across the pick-up cartridge, and therefore no chance of magnetization.

Absolutely no frequency bending tricks are used. RIAA accuracy is within 0.5dB bottom to top. The 50kHz cutter compensation reverses the negative effect of what is a natural single pole filter, thus adding to the extreme sound-staging capability. Just make sure your system can make use of it.

A period of approximately 3-4 weeks is required for the circuit to "break-in", after which it is advisable to leave the product on. After disconnection from the power they will require a further few days break-in period to return to full performance.

The full specification Era Gold V includes a PSU1 power supply. The Era Gold V "Intro" entry level stage includes a T48 plug-top power supply. The "Intro" can be upgraded to maximum performance by adding the PSU1. 200-240 volt and 100-120 volt models are available.

The power supply circuits do not employ switch-mode or DC-DC conversion. The RF produced by such devices gets into the signal path and modulates the signal, producing a set of pseudo frequencies that sing along with the music. This may make a stage sound rich, luscious and zingy, but it's not music.

Technology reference: "The Art of Electronics" Horowitz and Hill, Cambridge University Press

Reviews

Six Moons page 1 | page 2 (Review is on two pages) | printable PDF (633KB)

"...I would save my pennies for an Era Gold V and call it a day." Paul Candy

TNT-Audio read it online

"The Era Gold + Elevator EXP is the best phono combination for MC's I've ever heard - period" Geoff Husband

Enjoy The Music.com (the reference in this group test) read it online

"The Era Gold is simply out of this world" Phil Gold

Stereophile read it online

"Given its price and its miraculous performance - and this agnostic means miraculous - performance, I recommend the GSP Audio Era Gold Mk.V as enthusiastically, if not more so, as I've recommended any product I've reviewed and recommended in all the years I've been doing this." Michael Fremer

Hi-Fi News Best Phono Preamp Award 2004 for the Era Gold with Elevator EXP

"We feel that these units really do help you hear more of what's on the record"

Andrew Harrison, Hi-Fi News, 11/04

"...addictive, valve like quality...confirmed once again as something special...stunningly fast and open, with vinyl noises largely ignored..."

Stereophile, 04/04 & 10/04

Class-A $$$ recommendation

Hi-Fi Plus, 07/03

"...the one the others have to beat"

What Hi-Fi? Hi-Fi & Home Cinema Systems Ultimate Guide, 2004

"Its speed and wide ranging dynamics keep the fun factor sky-high without a hint of sacrifice when it comes to refinement and composure." 5-Stars

What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision, 02/04

"...its sound has wings" 5-Stars AND Test Winner

Tech Spec

Phono connectors

Heavy Gold Plated

Input sensitivity

2mV - 9mV

Input impedance

47k and 100pF

Output

240mV - 1.08V

Headroom

26dB ref 2mV input

Output noise "A" wtd.

-75dB

Distortion

less than 0.02%

Frequency response

10Hz - 2.7MHz

Reproduction curve

RIAA with 50kHz EQ

Size (approx.)

170 x 117x 50 (mm)

The Era Gold phono preamp stage is quite unlike any other phono stage in the world. It is truly individual. It throws current thinking to the wind, and concentrates on the one and only important task - that of reproducing music the way music sounds.

Specifically developed for high quality moving magnet, moving iron, and high output moving coil cartridges which require a fixed 47k Ohm load. It may also be used for low output moving coil cartridges by placing an Elevator head amplifier before it. The separation of MM and MC level matching functions removes all design compromises setting the music free!

Because there are no switch contacts in the signal path and because of its extremely fast amplifier stages with matched, high speed, low dielectric absorption RIAA networks, the Era Gold will retrieve detail from records with crystal clarity and precision, produce an amazingly accurate and stable stereo image, tight powerful bass and fantastic detail resolution with vast improvement to musical timing and timbre, along with the ethereal or ephemeral feel of valves... The resulting sound is startling in its musicality!

It is THE listeners' phono stage

As with many high performance products, the results it gives will only be as good as the source feeding it, but with a good turntable-arm-cartridge combination the results will be heard. In development the excellent Music Maker II moving iron cartridge and improved Hadcock GH228 Export arm were used.

At last, much of the grittiness blamed on the vinyl medium is exchanged for real music. Brass, with its complex harmonic structure appears as it should, rather than the usual distortion you get with slower stages.

As, is usually the case, it's the attention to the smallest details which make the biggest difference to how things sound. With the Era Gold, these small details are reproduced with such finesse that the music is brought to life. The life it had when committed to the master tape! Not just with modern high quality pressings or direct cut discs, but with used vinyl too, right back to the birth of RIAA stereo recordings.

How this is achieved is based on Graham Slee Projects concept of phase integrity, which can only be realised by fast electronics, which in turn is an art seldom understood, or achieved by other phono stage manufacturers. Every natural sound has its harmonics. These harmonics carry the information our hearing needs to distinguish between instruments, voices, the particular way in which they are played or sung. They also carry the micro-information about the recording venue, the microphone placement, the reverb - natural or synthetic - sounds and energies that make up the backdrop to the recording, and that backdrops perspective.

The power supply used to power the Era Gold is The PSU1, it uses extremely low impedance, high temperature reservoir capacitors, paralleled for even lower impedance, prior to a voltage regulator, which itself, is very low impedance. Its 12 watt peak capability is far greater than the power demanded by the Era Gold.

Additionally, the voltage is regulated a second time within the phono stage itself, providing an extremely clean power supply to the amplifiers. It is further improved by distributed tantalum capacitors. However, it is GSP's attention to the signal ground which makes the biggest impact. The ground is many orders of magnitude more stable than any other phono stage on the market, no matter how big the power supply!

The fast circuitry of the solid state Era Gold places it on par with many a valve phono stage. In fact, it can be quite difficult to differentiate between it and a valve stage. However the Era Gold carries none of the frequency limitations (Miller capacitance). Many have found it unbelievable that such a big, controlled and astonishingly musical sound can be "made" by such a small "box".

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