Phono stage recommendation around $2000

Luxman E-250 is superb and priced right at the 2K mark.

 

SPL Phonos. An earlier thread here had it neck and neck with the 20/20 and is $400 less or $900 less if you opt for the non switching PS.

I highly recommend it.

 

Still, somebody should have a whack at it? The good news is I wouldn't require a $50 deposit if you need that thing off your hands!

You should be looking at the message, not the messenger.

It would indeed be nice to have the curiosity explained away by a simple clarification that indeed the circuit boards are designed, laid out, fabricated, and assembled in the USA (as a purchaser might expect when choosing a product with "Made in USA" printed on them) and somebody in California just likes the font.

 

"exposing your xenophobia"

 

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I’ve assembled a list of phono stages I can begin to audition, or at least check if they are available in my area.

I definitely want it to be solid state. Not because I don’t tubes but I don’t like all the noise, colouration, and short lifespan that comes with them.

I did some more reading on the Sutherland brand and discovered most of his products use op-amps?!? I thought these devices were relegated to the low end non audiophile market and that discrete circuitry (tube or solid state) is superior to IC’s. Am I missing something? Why would such an expensive component do this?

 

Another vote for the Luxman E-250. Also has a mono switch, Cart de-magnatizer and a built in SUT.

 

This is a b.s. audiophile superstition.

 

I'm not a big fan of opamps and negative feedback in audio gear, but some of the best phono preamps in the world do use opamps and tons of negative feedback, as you can see from all the Sutherland votes above. Or Parasound, or Graham Slee, or Lehmann, or all the many others. There are a lot of ways to make good sounding audio, and a lot of good designers working in the field, it really is a fun time to be an audiophile, so much nice gear is available from all over the world, new and used, and phono preamps are almost like a gateway drug to the real high end.

That said, there are some very nice discrete solid state phono preamps out there now to focus on too, many no-feedback designs as well, which is one reason some designers avoid high-feedback opamp circuits, for some of us there is an elusive, and hard to describe, natural quality in some audio amps that don't use negative feedback, and you can't usually get there with high feedback opamp circuits, in my opinion (but our friend @patient_ot is right too, it isn't an absolute truth, just a design and/or listening preference). Ayre used to made the nice P5-Xe phono stage and you can find good deals in the used market, often for around $1500, it doesn't have universal acclaim but those who do like it tend to love it, and I like their design philosophy, and their sound goals tend to fit with my own. As with most of their gear, this is an all discrete design with no feedback, good parts, and fully balanced too. Pass also makes some similar designs in the US.

Check out the Trilogy 907 shown below, they are a UK company making some cool products that I'd love to try out, and I saw a pretty good deal on this two-box unit recently, I think Analog Seduction has a sale right now, without VAT it can be had for well under $2000. Very nice discrete no-feedback design integrated into a neat machined aluminum chassis with separate DC power supply box ...







Not intended as a recommendation, just an example of the many unique and interesting phono preamps available now.

 

I used to plug my turntable into my amp with its board phono stage. Then I bought a separate phono stage. I just listen to the music, but now it sounds much better.

 

Sutherland has a few interviews on YouTube (with Music Direct maybe?) where he discusses his designs in some decent detail. It's worth getting ears on them to decide for yourself.

Parts are important, but implementation is equally, if not more important. You can make really great parts sound bad, and mediocre parts sound great. If engineering audio gear was purely the sum of the parts, we wouldn't have so many options.

 

All depends on many factors. First, noise is subjective. All SS-based phono preamps I've ever had have made some level of noise. Was it better or worse than tube-based phono preamps? Depends on which one we're talking about, which tubes, the amount of gain used, etc.

Colouration all depends on the phono preamp itself and the tubes that are used. Some are more neutral than others. Lastly, lifespan of tubes is calculated in the thousands of hours. Unless you use cheap current production low-end tubes, they'll last you years upon years.

Doesn't matter to me which type you choose but would rather dispel whatever misconceptions you might have about tubes or tube-based phono preamps so you can make a more education decision.

 

Can't agree more. That is 100% right. That's the reason why DACs all featuring the same chip will sound vastly different from one another.

 

I think possibly one of the reasons you see so many different phono stage design philosophies and such that "work" is because there is a much greater margin for allowable noise than something like a DAC. Before we do anything with playing a record, all cartridges make electrical noise and then there is the noise floor the record itself.

 

Just picked up a pass aleph ono for around $1000 local used, excellent condition. While my Hagerman bugle2 served me very well, to say this behemoth of pure single ended class A no feedback virtually noiseless discrete goodness was an upgrade would be an understatement