Aesthetix IO Eclipse

Aesthetix
‎"The best phono stage we have ever heard"...on newsstands now, Io Eclipse wins 5 Stars from What Hi-Fi? Sound & Vision magazine in the UK - What an honor, thank you! http://www.whathifi.com/themag/07-2012

I have an original IO i purchased used from a dealer. Rather than send it back for an upgrade, i changed all the capacitors myself except for the 2uf big ones with TFT teflons. It was a heck of a job. Understatement of the century. But worth it. Tft have imroved everything i ever put them in to my ears.. The difference is significant and i love it. I am running it with an NOS spectral mcr at 0.2 on a basis ovation triplanar with io at 74 db into a reference 3 pre and have plenty of gain at 32. Speakers are currently 801s3. But also used dyn special 25 krell resolution 2.Also an orpheus h on a debut vector. The only noise i have is from a buzzing transformer in the power supply ( not through the speakers). Based on all these comments i will live with the buzzing rather than send it back..I can highly recommend the io . I want to hear the arc if i get a chance. I have had so many phono stages and nothing has come close to my aged ears. Tubes are mullard telefunken. Btw.

Hifi news(UK) has a recent review available online:

http://www.hifinews.co.uk/news/article.asp?a=9345

Hifi news and What hifi has only praise for the IO Eclipse, besides mentioning the practical issues as well as the potential back sides of the highly purist design.

I believe Stereophile has the IO Eclipse for review as we speak. Looking forward to that.

As for reliability, I’ve owned both a Rhea and IO Sig for over a year and have had zero issues with them. Concerning noise, I listen near field and have a fairly sensitive amp and only get a slight hiss with nothing playing using 74db of gain. I have found that both IO and Rhea are sensitive not only to tubes as others have pointed but also to cabling (phono, IC & power). Shielded cables are a must along with careful dressing. Albert Porter had Purist make a custom umbilical that he said help quite things down a bit. I think he still may market this.

I fall into the NOS camp for tubes. They are clearly better in my system and to my ears.

I plan on taking the road that LinnLP12 took when it comes time to upgrade. From what I can tell, the Eclipse looks like it was only a cap upgrade with a new chassis. I’m not impressed by the TRT Stealth caps in the Eclipse. I seriously doubt they are Teflon as they are the same size physically as the DynamiCaps they replaced. There are too many interesting options available not to have a bit of fun with this. Then there is the cost issue with the Eclipse versus the Signature. I think the cartridge loading and shunt resistors also look like low hanging fruit. I have Vishay TX2572’s in house for the cartridge loading position but haven’t gotten around to getting those installed.

You will not regret changing the caps (unless you choose the wrong cap :-). Everyone has their flavor of caps, I went through a lot of them for many many year. I would suggest you pick one that you know the after break in sound characteristics. Its an incredibly lot of work (understatement) but the effort will be rewarded. I dont change resistors or anything like that as I have made sound worse doing that. Some components are better than others, upgrade is just a term for "I want something new" :-). But the IO is what I consider really one of those special pieces. I did listen to it for a long time through a mod squad line drive passive and enjoyed it. Eventually went to an audio research Ref 3. The change was significant to my ears, therefore, i chose not to upgrade with the volume controls. For this reason, I agree with a comment that I beleive Albert Porter and some other person made online, go for the unit without volume controls and put the difference elsewhere.