Tube stage into HT gear?

Would there be a benefit of getting a tube Phono stage even when the rest of my gear is a McIntosh HT setup?

Been told the brightness of my vinyl setup may be my old Carver C-1 Pre that I am using as a phono stage.......

If so - which ones should I look at. Do any have two inputs for two arms, or would I need two and run one into the aux and one into a tape input?

Setup is a Clearaudio Solution w/OL RB250 and Grado Sonata, OEM RB250 w/Grado black, into the carver, then a Mac MX132....

 

Weird. If the phono Pre never sounded toppy, then I don't know why it's sounding toppy now.

I love my Cary Audio PH-1. You can buy it as a kit, or built.

http://www.audioelectronicsupply.com/

And check out the Ph-1. For the money, you'd be suprised at how damn good it is. Not many tube pre's are like that for the price.

No, no 2 arm options. Sorry. However, with a little electronic know-how you could drill 2 extra RCAs and make a switch on the box. Why not just take cables in/out when you need them? Having an outboard Pre is sometimes convienient for switching. Yes, with this, you can run it into an AUX input.

 

It sounded ok 10 years ago before it was retired to a closet !! Just took it out, opend it up, blew out the dust and started using it....... Not sure if ti's the culprit or not...

How hard are the PH-1 to put together ? Can an average joe with a little soldering experience do it? Or is the extra money worth not blowing something up if you screw up.......

 

The PH-1 was the 1st kit I ever built. No one I knew recommended me try building it as my 1st kit. Well, I'm a stubborn bastard plus I *did* have soldering experiences on PCB big and small. "Yeah, I can do this. Bring it on!"

Ouch. How can you keep the beads of sweat from getting on the open wires?

Well, fact is, I did it. Here's a few others:

1. The kit itself is handsome and straight-forward for build. The ideas are step-by-step, but there are TONS of open wires from reisistors and caps going on. I couldn't believe I could let 6-dozen connections left open, and not 1 cross. How I was able to balance so many parts and build layer after layer of electrolytic caps and metal film reistors, I'll never know. You realize, you have to make soldering your LAST STEP. So, how crafty are you in negotiating a hot iron around 5-6 connections at a time and still aim at the lugs? Think you're hot? Hotter than the iron is? Try not to burn holes in the caps while also trying not to un-hook the temporary connections to the solder lugs.

2. There's quite a capacitance in the head filter caps. Could possibly hurt quite a bit if you touched em. Possibly could kill you too. Another caviat, but you know this already.

3. Felt good building the little cutie. I've messed with Dynaco's for collectively 4-5 hours. Tuners, about 3 hours. Built the Foreplay in 4 1/2. The AES PH-1 took collectively 34 hours. Three nights of building. Eeek, I have to go to the bathroom. Oh, where WAS I?? Did I do this step already? Just a haze of a wire-rats nest.

You CAN do it. Kit experience is recommended. This is coming from a guy who thinks he's pretty crafty with a soldering iron.

OR, just buy it built and spend the same time looking for great side-getter RCA 6SL7s.

**Another thing, Doc Bottlehead's kits TELL you when to solder connections during the build rather than tell you to do it all at last step. It reduces confusion by nailing down lugs as they're finalized. I wish the PH-1 was like that, but the unit IS part-intensive.

 

Hi McIntosh,

While I'm not familiar with that particular gear, I have found that running a tubed phono pre into a solid state pre and power amp give me the best of both worlds. I run a CJ Premier 15 into a Spectral DMC30SL.

While it is very expensive, the Manley Steelhead has two inputs, runs on tubes, and has received very favorable reviews. As to kits, I'll leave that to others... leave that to others... (old Earth, Wind, and Fire joke from their song System of Survival)

I think a tube phono section is what vinyl is all about.

Tom H