Ear 834P vs. Wright 200c Phono Stage Amps

Hi,

Can I ask which amps that you considered and why these 2 are the last amps standing?

I have tried a few phono amps.All of them being solid state. These last two are my tube choices. They are in my budget. I prefer the tube sound over solid state.

I'm a fan of George Wright's phono stages. I had the WPP200c and the 834P in my system at the same time for about a year. The Wright was better in every respect. It had a more natural sounding timbre; it was airier; and it was better at presenting a three-dimensional image. All in all, it was more enjoyable. To get the most out of it when using a moving coil, you should be using a SUT to load the cartridge correctly. A lot of people don't do this to avoid the extra cost or to avoid the extra device and interconnects. But the default input impedance is 47k ohms which isn't correct for a MC. Depending on the cartridge, it should be between 10-150 ohms. That's a huge difference.

Some say the 834P is the best you can get in its price range, but in my opinion, and in my experience, it's over-rated. For starters, it has too much gain for most cartridges (49 dB MM and 68 dB MC). Depending on the gain structure of your system, this could be overwhelming as it was in my case. Along with the stock tubes that came with the 834P, I tried Mullard 12AX7 Groove Tube re-issues, Tung Sol's, ei's, JJ's, and Mullard CV4004 which are very highly regarded. While it never sounded bad, none of these tubes delivered the kind of magic the WPP200c and WPP100c did. Some say Telefunken's will bring it to life, but then you're looking at $150-200 recurring replacement costs. I decided it wasn't worth it.

Have you considered an Eastern Electric MiniMax Phono? I haven't heard it, but some say it's a giant killer. Check out this forum: Phono Pre with AES AE-3