I've had owned all the BAT's p5, p10 and now p10se. Also tried the Aesthetix Rhea. I have a friend with a Io. Can't go wrong with any of these. Io at the top, P10se and Rhea do some different things well...
Check out the Hagerman Trumpet. It is a fully balanced tube phono stage and can be ordered with balanced output for under $2k, which is a bargain. This is one well-designed and seriously good phono stage - fast, neutral, detailed, and extremely quiet. Hagerman's web site is quite informative. www.hagtech.com
Run away from
Aesthetics IO I have one was nothing but trouble sent it in for upgrade paid 6k and it has never worked. Came back with a note might be a little noisey, thing sucks it is so noisy I can't believe they even sent it back that way, worse than when I sent it in for the upgrade. I called them and they do not stand behind there work offered no solution. Love there pre amp so I bought the phono and mono-blocks the mono-blocks continually shut down for no reason no error or anything. Poor programming. Other than the pre the rest of the line is flaky.
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