Sovereign MKII
Owner Comments

As you know I recently bought a Sovereign mk2 turntable and Conqueror Mk 3c arm from D.C.S, who were very helpful, and thought I would give you some feedback.

My previous deck was a Linn Lp12 / Ekos arm / Pink Link dc motor with battery power supply / Cetech carbon fibre sub chassis /Lyra Helikon.

I know from your instructions that the deck and arm take around 2 weeks to run in and settle down so I wasn't expecting too much when I cued up my first LP. I was surprised though to find some obvious improvements straight away. The first thing to grab my attention was the speed. Fast musical passages are noticeable faster than they were, more dynamic and life like. The soundstage was noticeable deeper, not much different left to right though, and the bass went much deeper.

On day two I was on my holiday but had planned to go into work for a few hours to do some preparatory work for the following week. I thought I would just listen to an album before going. Big, big mistake. I ended up spending the entire day listening to music, always just one more record. The sound is very addictive and draws you into the music.

The deck is really starting to come on song now after 2 ½ weeks. The background is now darker, there is more focus, better soundstage and fine detail which wasn't immediately obvious before.

With a Ralph McTell album, Ralph Albert & Sydney, live recordings at the Royal Albert Hall and The Sydney Opera House, McTell reaches the end of a song and asks the audience what they would like him to play next. With my previous deck I could hear the loudest voices but there was very little sense of space or acoustics within the Opera House. Now I can hear a multitude of voices at different levels and know exactly where the sounds come from. You can hear the lowest voice just as obviously as the loudest and you hear the acoustics of the venue very clearly

I am delighted with the deck, I find it a lot more natural sounding and less fatiguing to listen to for long periods than the LP12. I now hear a wide range of tonal colours in the music.

I upgraded my amplifiers from Linn Kairn / LK240 mono blocks to Chord Electronic 3200 pre and 1200C power amplifiers and bought a Whest PS20 phono stage a few years ago. Since then I have never been really happy with the sound from my turntable. I was forever trying new turntable mats and different interconnects but to no avail.

With the Sovereign and Conqueror everything has snapped into place, my amplifiers have never sounded so good and I never really appreciated just how good the Helikon really was.

The turntable and arm are really eye catching, the build quality is excellent and the arm is a joy to use.

I would recommend this turntable and arm without reservation to other music lovers looking for a turntable or arm upgrade. This will be my final turntable but one that I know I will be very happy with.

John Kopec