IMO, the Puffin is superior to the Budgie in every way that matters with respect to sound quality. Unfortunately, that’s based on hearing a Budgie only twice at the home of someone with a modest, well set up system. Three months between music listening evenings, and not since June of 2017. One thing I do recall clearly was that the Budgie produced just a bit of background noise. The Puffin is dead silent in operation in the system in which I’m using it right now (Linn LP12, Acoustical Systems Fideles cartridge, Naim Supernait 2, KEF Reference 104ab or Falcon Acoustics LS3/5A speakers). Still, the Budgie remains a good phono preamp that was and is widely appreciated. I think that Parks has developed the Puffin in a way that is attractive to a larger number of new customers, and with excellent sound quality as his first order. I’ll try to organize a comparison session with a Budgie. Might be interesting.
It's not beyond the realm of possibility that the next iteration of a product is better than the last. It's pretty much the point of revisions and upgrades, no? Budgie owners (of which I'm one) seem to be having issues with the idea that their gadget is usurped... I have no plans to buy a Puffin, as I don't have time or desire to do all the tweaking, etc. But I have zero plans to replace my Budgie either.
That's not it, IMHO. But rather that their tube-based straightforward design might be surpassed by one which is entirely the opposite (no tubes, much more complex, etc).
Tubes are great and all, but there's no actual law that says tubes cannot be bested by digital product. That may have been (more or less) the case when digital was in it's infancy, but it's growing up... Could be that Parks' product is a paradigm shift in digital design.
Yeah I can see the appeal of all the tweekiness and it's great that a product can provide those options. Just not something I care about...
Well said, and that’s what Parks has accmimishes, IMO. The Puffin can be tweaked and tweaked no doubt, but the initial installation and set up is no more involving than any other high quality phono preamp and perhaps much easier for many audiophiles. No dipswitches to deal with.
Yeah, I have the hybrid so it cuts down on some of that. I'd really like to hear a side by side comparison, but for now I'm content with my Budgie and might get a Puffin down the road.
I've found the Budgie to be noisy if one of two problems is present. Bad tubes or radio noise too close to it. Some tubes sizzle when the input is quiet. I have a Bluesound Node that, when it's actively streaming, you can literally hear directly through the Budgie if you crank up the amp with no input feeding the Budgie. Probably lack of shielding on both devices, but it taught me to pause the Node before I listen to LP's. Shannon also sent me a pair of grounded tube shields free of charge to help out with microphonics on the tubes. Great guy, never seen anyone stand behind a product like this.
I noticed that also, but the instructions that come with the Budgie specifically say to keep it a certain distance from wi-fi signals. 4 feet or more seems to work, but I guess it depends...
Same here, or at least none that is audible to me (or anyone else that's listened). I could see it depending a lot on the tubes.
Nope, they're simple aluminum shields that slide over each tube. Both have a wire soldered which you run to ground.
Hello all, First post. I have an early Budgie with NOS Amperex JAN orange label 7308,s and I think for the money it’s a heck of a good sounding MM / HOMC amp. Yes, I’m stuck buying a good quality SUT if and when I go to LOMC carts. Which could be soon. So now I’m wondering if I should mothball the Budgie and get a Puffin. But I love tubes ! My pre and power amp are tube and going to a phono ADC to DAC just seems wrong. Has anyone A/B ed the Budgie and Puffin yet in the same system ? Results ? Shannon is a great guy, and I hope for him the Puffin is a big success.
You must have skipped the whole thread. You can run the Puffin in line with the Budgie so you still get the same sound and the Puffin just adds a boost for LOMC's.
I would position the budgie as the first quality entry tube phono -pre. It was an excellent alternative to those who wish to temper the SS sound signatures of their systems and want to get away from OP amps that predominate prono pre's in the $400 and below price range. That the new Puffin is a superior product to the Budgie is something I would agree with and not dispute, saying that have yet to see or hear one. I will comment that the Video of the Puffin was about the most un-enlightening product video that I remember viewing. Just knobs being twister and numbers appearing on the display, without a clear and concise explanation of what is going on. But, I did come away with the understanding that the product does take the output from the cartridge, convert it to digital and then, after processing, converts it back to analog again. Since you have experience with this product as well as higher end analog TT systems, I would like to ask your opinion, it this a good thing. Do you prefer a product like this, over a pure analog chain? I am really curious as to our thoughts on this. It might seem that this logic may be applied to the rice krispie's style of digital noise removal systems?
It’s not a great video, but the Puffin user manual is freely available on the product web site. It’s straightforward and explains all the features and functions. Shannon Parks seems to be making very intelligent use of the DSP, the ADC/DACs and the CPU that he has integrated in the Puffin design. The firmware programming that Parks has done is also brilliant. The interface is simple, fast, responsive and easy to use. Whether Parks himself has done the programming or whether someone else has done the programming for him, it’s first rate. Seriously - it’s quite an accomplishment. Could the same highly skilled programmers apply their talents to digital noise removal systems? Sure. Maybe he/she/they already are. First and foremost, the Puffin is dead silent. In a correctly set up analog system, there’ll be nothing coming out of your speakers except the music from whatever LP you’re playing. The Puffin measures extremely well, and sounds great. No veiling, no it’s-not-quite-there, no glitches or grounding issues or compatibility issues. It just works. As for the pure analog vs hybrid analog discussion (or however, exactly, the Puffin should be described), I think my main response is that when using the Puffin I’m usually enjoying music listening so much that I forget about the discussion. So, what the Puffin does - I think - is to break down or blur and positively change the dividing line between analog and digital in a way that helps audiophiles on a relatively tight budget gain several advantages. At the head of the list, the Puffin is a very good phono preamp. Next on the list, the Puffin’s selectable choices of recording curves, along with the RIAA curve, are very well conceived and - as far as I can tell - perfectly accurate. Third on the list, the high frequency and low frequency control settings can help tame a variety of issues including at least some of Rice Krispie crackle you mentioned, and some of the low frequency rumble founding in inadequately isolated turntables. There’s a lot more. Check out the Puffin user manual online here. It’s worth reminding audiophiles that there’s no USB input or optical input or SPDIF input or output in the Puffin. The Puffin is a phono preamp - not a phono preamp-DAC, not a phono preamp/ADAC. The point of mentioning that in this post is to emphasize the idea that Parks has used some of the very latest ideas and productive thinking to develop a remarkably good phono preamp at a remarkably low price. He hasn’t adulterated it or diluted it and his efforts by delving into areas he doesn’t care about at this time (like a set of DAC inputs and outputs and all their attendant additional R&D and programming and cost). Parks knows phono preamps, and that’s what he stuck to when developing the Puffin. I think that the Puffin needs to be purchased and used with all that in mind. It’s the fastest way to vinyl heaven on a tight budget, IMO. I’ve now tested the Puffin with a variety of cartridges and turntables. The cartridge list includes a Dynavector Karat 17D3, Shure V15 Type VxMR, Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC Lo, Ortofon Cadenza Black, Ortofon 2M Black, Benz Micro SH, Nagaoka MP200, Audio Technica VM760SLC, Charisma Denon DL-103, and a few others. The turntable list include the Rega RP6, Rega P6, Origin Live Aurora with Ruby arm, Linn LP12 with Linn Akito arm, Avid Diva II SP turntable with Origin Live Illustrious arm, and a couple of other turntable and arm combinations. Basically, most of the audiophiles I know who heard the Puffin at my place (or who read about the Puffin and then found out I had one) wanted to try it. Not a single negative review from any of them. A dozen reviews of high praise from friends who’ve now played with the Puffin, and I’ll add my own voice to that.
First off, let take the time to thank you for your considerate and detailed response on the new Puffin! On the subject of the clicks and pops, I should have been more clear. There is another product out there that apparently already does this job. Here is a link to this thread started by member @DigMyGroove. The SugarCube SC-2 Is Here At Last...Clicks & Pops R.I.P. Apparently, this product works quite nicely and does effectively what it is designed to do. But, to do so, it, like the Puffin, take an analog signal and convert it into the digital domain, where it works it's magic, then its converted back to analog again. Apparently this is how the Puffin works also, analog to digital, DSP, then back to analog. I have both analog and digital music and could not really care if one is technically better than the other, all I am looking for is good sound and I don't really care if that sound is coming from a record or a CD. In my system, once digital music has exited the DAC, it remains in the analog domain. Most goes through SS amplification, except for the Zu's and the Altec Lansing A7's, where it is a pure tube system. The holy grail of analog has always been the TT as a source, together with an analog preamp, either tube or SS, but always analog. These two devices appear that they might be game changer's! A digital device on an analog TT, HERESY! But, what if it works? I'm perfectly fine with it being just a straight phono pre with straight analog outs, in fact, I prefer it that way. You seem to have tried it with an impressive list of carts and turntables, like the Linn 12 and other impressive tables. I have a Vinyl Nirvana Thorens TD-160 Super, with Rega/Moth 202 arm that has been upgraded with Cardis wiring. I have the 2M Bronze/Black on it. It is driving a Decware ZP3 tube phono pre. The 2nd TT is an upgraded RP6 with the Exact MM cart. I am using an older Musical Fidelity X-LPS SS phono pre on it, which isn't all that bad, considering that it was only a $300 phono pre to begin with. It does have the standard wall wart and not the optional external PSU, They still make aftermarket units, but the are for the later models which are 24-Volts, where I need a 12-Volt PSU, which seem like they are going for about $200 a pop. I am questioning, is this the best way to make the best use of monetary resources? I had tried the RP6 with the ZP3 and the combination was outstanding and would have been perfect, if it weren't for the hum. (I did read your conversations with @KT88 on that subject. Why not just put a ground wire on the TT & arm and not have these nightmare problems, which could be avoided in the first place? This is really STUPID in the first place, if you ask me. And, no, I am not going to spend a minute of my time doing a work around this crap. Luckily, the X-LPS has no HUM!) At any rate, I feel that I can get quite a bit more out of the RP6 combo, with a better phono pre, which is the reason for my interest on the Puffin. Decisions, decisions... Since I have one tube phono pre already, I don't mind considering going SS with the RP-6. Could you give me a bit more in-depth detail on the RP-6 and the 2M Black? I realize that you didn't test this particular combination together, which is fine. But since I have some familiarity with these components, it might help me to better understand and to comprehend. Thank You. S&G
I think the SugarCube SC-2 works reasonably well as a click & pop & crackle filter, but its developers have a very long way to go in order to equal the phono preamp knowledge and phono preamp design implementation skills of Parks. I heard a pre-release version of the SC-2 at TAVES 2016 in Toronto. It was okay - it worked well - but there was an unmistakeable bit of dullness to the sound. The most recent version is definitely better, but the analog output is still not as good as a Puffin or a Lehmann Black Cube SE II, or a Lounge Audio LCR Gold, Musical Fidelity M6, Pro-ject Phono Box RS, or a number of other highly regarded phono preamps. At US$399, the Puffin not only works brilliantly, it’s a bargain at the price. I tried my RP6 with a 2M Black a couple of years ago. Lehmann Black Cube and iFi Micro iPhono 2. They were/are a wonderful sounding combination. The RB303 tonearm remains one of my all-time favorites because it’s so well designed and so versatile. I can’t recall if I used a 1mm or 2mm stainless steel shim to adjust arm height, but the setup ended up being very slightly tail-up for best results to my ears. According to my listening notes, the combo is a definite winner. Good tracker too. Baerwald alignment worked perfectly. Alignment was done with the Feickert alignment tool. Stock azimuth was spot on thankfully. Heavy, large ensemble classical (e.g., the allegro from Beethoven’s 6th, Bruno Walter with the Columbia Symphony) sounded congested during the loudest full ensemble sections, but they’re a challenging recordings no doubt and you have to spend a lot more money on arm, cart and phono preamp to sort out that particular allegro. Every other LP sounded wonderful.
The way you’ve written this paragraph above inadvertantly implies to the reader that the Sugarcube SC-2 is also a phono pre-anp which it is not. The device cannot be directly compared to a phono stage since it isn’t one itself. The device works with the pre-amp of your choosing, so the sonic qualities you hear through the Sugarcube are most definitely due to the signal passing throygh your own pre-amp first. In my case it’s the silver wired upgrades to the Lounge Copla and LCR. After 9 months of owning it I can agree that yes, in some cases the Sugarcube will affect the sound, but in most cases it does not. To date the album I heard the greatest difference on was our host’s DCC pressing of Elton John’s “Madman Across the Water” where the sense of space and air was quite diminished by running through the SC-2. That said fortunately most LPs aren’t impacted at all and I’m very happy I have the SC-2 in my system to use when needed. Thanks for your Puffin review, I still may get one down the line, very curious to hear it, not only with records but with CDs.
The Sugarcube is not a phono preamp - absolutely. However, to my ears in most cases the Sugarcube definitely affects sound. I still hear a bit of flatness to everything being processed. The less processing - i.e., the cleaner the LP, and therefore the less work the Sugarcube has to do - the better the sound. Every processor you put inline with a phono signal from a cartridge affects sound. Sugarcube claims that there's little or no effect, but I disagree. However, IMO again, I have heard the Sugarcube process otherwise essentially unlistenable and rare albums into something wonderfully listenable. That's the Sugarcube magic and that's the brilliance of its engineers and programmers. Use the Bypass for clean LPs. No need to process LPs that don't need processing. You'll hear an improvement. Well you're welcome (for the review) but nowhere did I suggest that the Puffin could be used to play CDs. As a matter of fact, I stated clearly that it's not a DAC. Shannon Parks has stated clearly that it's not a DAC. I stated that it's a phono preamp - an unusual one - but a phono preamp only. And that's what it is. AMENDED . . . As a CD player output processor, I personally think the Puffin is a bit of a toy. I know what the user manual states, but IMO though, Parks put his best efforts into the Puffin as a phono preamp. No coax input, no optical input. Only phono jacks mainly for connecting a turntable. You can connect the analog output of a CD player, but then it's just play time as far as I'm concerned. My comments and praise for the Puffin are strictly about its use as a phono preamp, not as a CD player output processor.
you can plug any source into the puffin and it will act essentially as an equalizer. At the end of the day it is as much of an an EQ device as it is a phonostage.
