Parasound Zphono: a very brief review

The PHO 700 is pretty awesome. I'm still listening to this one I have hear, which belongs to a customer. I'm probably going to buy one myself. I'll do a separate review thread about the PHO 700.

 

I only have a few hours on mine the highs sizzle a little but it does come with a stock 12Au7 from china, I will probably replace the stock tube that comes with it, need to let it burn in a bit before I do.

 

How nice.

In theory.

In practice they're all broken I guess.

 

You are just being obstinate. You know that if phono stage A sounds radically different than stage B then one of them is broken. The RIAA curve is the RIAA curve. It doesn't change. You also know that we shouldn't be talking about what sounds good but what is accurate and true to the source. That's what High Fidelity is about, not what colorations are most pleasing to you. Bad recordings should sound bad, not be tarted up.

 

You have an unrealistic view of preamp circuit design.

 

Now you're just twisting everyone's words to fit your argument.

Yea yea, best sonic appliance is a straight wire, yadda yadda. Thanks for the breaking news.

 

No way. Get that tube out of there. I've never even listened to a PHO 700 with the stock tube inside.

 

To Bubbamike: Please build me a tube phono stage. Send it to me. If I like it, I'll buy it.

To everyone else: We should give Bubbamike a break. While we may not agree with his approach and it may sound ridiculous, Peter Walker and Alan Shaw said/say the same type of crap, and we all love those guys.

 

Actually, even wire with gain will have flaws. It needs to be room temp. superconductor with gain. Once I get my alternate universe going I will start building these and deliver them by unicorn.

Gotta love it!

 

One more nod to Bubbamike: as I continue to experiment with loading, I find that many of these phono stages sound more similar than they do different. Last night I did massive shootout between my Radio Shack battery powered stage, the modified Zphono in which I'm now running OPA604 op amps, and the Vincent PHO 700. It's left me nothing but confused. For example, a magic combination is my Shure M55/N44G stylus combo with the Vincent PHO 700 with an extra 200pF and a 47k resistor in parallel (cutting the stock 47k in half...a little trick I picked up from another forum regarding flattening the Shure cantilever HF peak). Switch over to my Pickering 625 DJ (XV-15) and it doesn't sound so good. Shure M55 also sounds great wide open, no loading on the PHO 700. Pickering XV-15 has better bass and may sound better overall on the Zphono. Just returned the PHO 700 and hooked it up to my customer's $20,000 system featuring a pair of Harbeth Monitor 30s, same table as mine...Lenco w/ Denon tonearm, wood headshell w/ Shure M55/N44G combo and it doesn't sound nearly as good as it did through my system. Point being that there's a lot going on here. There are no rules. If you get lucky, you find the right combination. The phono stages seem to be a pretty consistent variable, though they do not sound the same. The edges of the music sound different, while the heart of the device may more or less being doing similar things from one example to the next. Thinking of ordering a Jolida JD9 II to throw into the mix, though I found the original JD9 to be unappealing. Hmmm....

 

Still listening to the Parasound Zphono with OPA604 op amps installed. Though these devices do not have the bass slam or resolution of the other pair I was using, their laid-back character and overall smoothness is very musical. My next step will be to go with some component replacement elsewhere. I have a copy of the Zphono schematic, if anyone wants to play. Message me and I'll email it to you. I'm determined to take the Zphono as far as I can take it. I think it has a fundamental rightness about it that makes it worth the effort. If I can get rid of that slightly edgy character, I'll have something very, very good.

 

Hi ArdenHIFI

I am new to this forum just was reading your post about the Parasound ZPhono and you are are so correct about the harshness in the sound due to the lousy opamp 5534. The PreAmp is good in output and performance except the sound quality can be improved. Bro I was looking for assistance how to upgrade and my luck I found your thread. Bro can you assist me with this opamp upgrade please. I was considering the brubrown OPA627 and wanted to replace all the caps with Elina Caps.

Is the opamp replacement just plug and play I mean desolder the old one and resolder opa627 without any modifications to the circuit.

Also the existing BruBrown OPAMP OPA2134 is a good one right or that too needs to be replaced.

Brother please help me I am kind off had it with my PreAmp. This is my 5 phono stage after Nad low output TC Emotive burn out supply etc.

I was considering Mani but I was lucky found you

Awaiting your reply
Tks Clay

 

You have to solder in sockets first. Then you can add the op amp of your choice.

 

OK great Thanks bro. Will let you know shortly. Did you change the Opa2134 or left it untouched.

 

Hi Bro . I didn't think you would read the post. The good news I finally modified Parasound ZPhono and believe me the PreAmp is totally transformed into a beautiful sounding PPreAmp just last week.

Many thanks to you and your research. Thank you Thank you Thank you.

Yes it took me some time as I had to do with quite a bit of fakes from eBay. Was disappointed initially and was close to chucking the ZPhono PreAmp for the Mani.

Finally ordered the OPA627 from Mouser.in paid quite a bit with duty octroi taxes but end of it forgot all as the sound was out of this world.

The ELENA Caps also helped a great deal in improving over all the quality.

I am now fully satisfied to say.

Still improvement can put a partition in the box to isolate the Transformer add power switch and a ceramic core on the power connector don't know if it will help in anyway. My friend suggested Toroidal Transformer. But all this later.

I am enjoying the sound and you to thank for.

Thank you once again.
Clay

 

Hi Clay,

I embarked on the same journey as yours on zphono and was able to put in the sockets so that I can roll op amps.

Next thing I want is to replace the capacitors.
Could you please help me with BOM for the capacitors with the parts number of Elena Caps you replaced with?

Also if you have a copy of the schematics as ArdenHiFi mentioned earlier that would be helpful.
As seems like ArdenHiFi does not logs in here any more.

Thanks

 

He's around. Perhaps PM him.

 

I used that Parasound for about 2 years . Ive updated my system and now use a Manley Chinook . The Parasound for the cost is a excellent piece of equipment !

 

When I built the Hagerman Bugle phono pre I substituted the AD8620 opamp. I really liked the result. Lots if speed yet fluid sound.

It's max supply voltage is 13 volts so you need to measure the supply voltage in the phono preamp before dropping it in.

I ended up getting a Brown Dog adaptor that lets one use two single channel opamps and went with a pair of AD 8610's.

I was very happy with this set up until I built Hagerman' s Cornet2 tube phono stage. That blew it out of the water by a large margin.

The Cornet3 can be had for $500 new.

 

Thanks Dr. J.

I'll give it a shot.

 

I tired and seems like there is no response from ArdenHIFI. His last login was on Jan 8th this year as per the status when you click on his profile.

So is there anybody else who may have a copy of zphono Schematics?

Please let me know.

All help is appreciated.

 

My apologies for resurrecting this thread... I have a ZPhono USB and I'm wondering if the same op-amp treatment would apply to this model. I realize that the original poster is not active on this site any longer, but has anyone else been tinkering with the ZPhono's lately? Thanks much, Tim

 

I have the opportunity to pick up a ZPhono and am wondering the same, but, given no one has responded in the past year, guessing interest has waned?

 

FWIW I am still using my stock Zphono with my Denon DL-110 and Technics 1200 and am very happy with it for a long long time. I actually think it compares favorably to units costing way more. If I upgrade at some point it will probably be the same family of Parasound products (XRM etc)