ST-70 Repaired; Thinking about Phono Preamp

My ST-70 developed a terrible hum, but I was lucky enough to have found a repair shop in Salt Lake City and after about two weeks, the bill came to $400 and change. All the caps were replaced in power supply, two resistors were replaced and the solenium diode was changed out for silicone. The controls were cleaned and the bias was correctly set. I thought when I first bought it on Audiogon, it sounded real good, now it sounds ridiculously fantastic with my Pas 3 preamp, my Dyna FM receiver, my Dynaco speakers, and my Thorens turntable. After I recently purchased a Grado Blue cartridge I'm thinking a phono preamp? Any thoughts? Thanks! (And please don't tell me I overpaid on the repair/restoration!)

You over paid on the repair/restoration! Sorry I couldn't help myself. I don't spin vinyl so you're asking the wrong guy. I will tell you that if you have any issues with your gear you've come to the right place. There's a ton of people here willing AND able to help you out,

I recently built a Bottlehead Reduction. The stock version was good. Adding the Integration upgrade took it several levels up. Swapping some caps made it fantastic!

don't take this personally, this is strictly my very own opinion, but for the life me, I could never ever justify spending $100's on capacitors!...to me that is just utter waste of money!...is sound really worth that much for a home setup??
Same with some tubes out there, some of the prices being asked are just outrageously stupid.
The subtle difference/improvements these may give......I just don't get it!
I guess everyone to their own, just blows my mind!.....OK....I now feel better!   

but getting back to the OP's question, have a look at the PH series (Tubes4Hifi) of phono amps. Either a stand alone unit, or upgrade your preamp to one of the very good SP series and add a PH phono amp with it, then sell your PAS3
And yes, in future if you should have a problem with one of your tube hifi gear, ask here, some excellent knowledge base, and the repair will most likely be much more economic.

MontanaWay wrote:don't take this personally, this is strictly my very own opinion, but for the life me, I could never ever justify spending $100's on capacitors!...to me that is just utter waste of money!...is sound really worth that much for a home setup??
Same with some tubes out there, some of the prices being asked are just outrageously stupid.
The subtle difference/improvements these may give......I just don't get it!
I guess everyone to their own, just blows my mind!.....OK....I now feel better!   

Living in Chicago I can spend $100 on so many things and have very little to show for it.  That being said I did not take buying these caps lightly.  But they do make more than a subtle difference in the sound.  In the end I got great sound and don't really miss the money.

Oh and for the record, most people would shake their heads at all of this "obsolete" tube gear when you can get a super easy to use and woman friendly Bose system. Value is in the eye of the beholder.

[/quote]Living in Chicago I can spend $100 on so many things and have very little to show for it.  That being said I did not take buying these caps lightly.  But they do make more than a subtle difference in the sound.  In the end I got great sound and don't really miss the money.

Oh and for the record, most people would shake their heads at all of this "obsolete" tube gear when you can get a super easy to use and woman friendly Bose system.  Value is in the eye of the beholder.[/quote]

yes indeed, value sure is in the eye of the beholder.
If one is passionate enough about a hobby/interest, then spending extra to obtain that ever elusive perfection is not much of an issue I guess. We do all see things differently.

I would recommend a mod to the PAS3 phono section, since you already have it, simply by making a few changes to the feedback network. I was pleasantly surprised after I made the mods to mine.

theeditor wrote:My ST-70 developed a terrible hum, but I was lucky enough to have found a repair shop in Salt Lake City and after about two weeks, the bill came to $400 and change. All the caps were replaced in power supply, two resistors were replaced and the solenium diode was changed out for silicone. The controls were cleaned and the bias was correctly set. I thought when I first bought it on Audiogon, it sounded real good, now it sounds ridiculously fantastic with my Pas 3 preamp, my Dyna FM receiver, my Dynaco speakers, and my Thorens turntable. After I recently purchased a Grado Blue cartridge I'm thinking a phono preamp? Any thoughts? Thanks! (And please don't tell me I overpaid on the repair/restoration!)

Interwest Electronics?  They do good work.  And IMO you didn't overpay -- that's actually a reasonable price for that amount of work from a commercial storefront repair shop.  You could have gotten cheaper repairs from someone like Thomas Posche in Sandy, or maybe Robert Silk (if he's accepting work), or other private or retired hobbyist.   The trade-off is often a longer wait (sometimes much longer), and no real guarantee beyond whatever trust you put in the person who did the work.  (I've had good work from both Thomas Posche and Robert Silk, FWIW.)

What's your budget for the phono pre-amp?  The VTA models from Tubes4Hifi are supposed to be good but I haven't tried one myself.  The Parks Audio Budgie is also good, and is $499 from Shannon Parks via eBay (it's tubed, with two 6922s).  There are lots and lots of solid state options, but I'll hold off on recommendations there until you state your budget.

Jim Hagerman sells the Bugle I and II and the Coronet, but they're kits. Then there's Montana's Nixies:MM and MC kit.

I won't touch the designer parts debate with a ten foot pole. I do have a confession to make: I did install Bybee filters in my GRs. This is considered 'snake oil' on Shannon's site. IMHO, they do seem to reduce noise and I have John Curl on my side.

Thanks for everyone's advice. To Skriefal, yes, I did go to Interwest Electronics and they were extremely candid about the difficulties in troubleshooting/repairing the ST-70. I also asked them to clean it up so that was a part of the bill, too. And, they discounted the labor. So overall, I'm very pleased with their service, which came in on the high side of the estimate.

I was thinking about the Hagermans, and a lot of people like the battery power as opposed to the brick, but I can't tell a soldering iron from a clothes iron, so my DYI is non-existent. I've also been looking at the Grado preamp, the Pro-Ject on Needle Doctor, and some others.

theeditor wrote:Thanks for everyone's advice. To Skriefal, yes, I did go to Interwest Electronics and they were extremely candid about the difficulties in troubleshooting/repairing the ST-70. I also asked them to clean it up so that was a part of the bill, too. And, they discounted the labor. So overall, I'm very pleased with their service, which came in on the high side of the estimate.

I was thinking about the Hagermans, and a lot of people like the battery power as opposed to the brick, but I can't tell a soldering iron from a clothes iron, so my DYI is non-existent. I've also been looking at the Grado preamp, the Pro-Ject on Needle Doctor, and some others.

In that case I would highly recommend the Musical Fidelity V-90 LPS. At $229 it is a serious steal!

$100/hour is not unreasonable for repair shop labor in an expensive place like Chicago, and it is easy to spend two hours or more to get an old amplifier not just "working" but RIGHT.  The kind of quality parts that need to go into a unit like that, also do not have the kind of markup as do popular (and cheap) parts that go into most mass-market consumer gear.  What's important is that the work was done well and that the amplifier sounds good.  Also if you do not have the skills to do the work yourself...and there is nothing to be ashamed of, there...you will be well off cultivating a lasting relationship with a good repairer.  When I was in the business, I had many quality cudtomers who followed me for over twenty years.  Sure, I charged more than the pimple-faced kid who fixed "steereos" at home after his $5/hour job ar Radio Shack!!

GP49 wrote:$100/hour is not unreasonable for repair shop labor in an expensive place like Chicago, and it is easy to spend two hours or more to get an old amplifier not just "working" but RIGHT.  The kind of quality parts that need to go into a unit like that, also do not have the kind of markup as do popular (and cheap) parts that go into much mass-market consumer gear.  What's important is thst the work was done well and that the amplifier sounds good.  Also if you do not have the skills to do the work yourself...and there is nothing to be ashamed of, there...you will be well off cultivating a lasting relationship with a good repairer.  When I was in the business, I had many quality cudtomers who followed me for over twenty years.  Sure, I charged more than the pimple-faced kid who fixed "steereos" at home after his $5/hour job ar Radio Shack!!

The OP is in Salt Lake City. I'm the one in Chicago.