Entry level phono stage

Best one you will ever find in a small box that is very very good comes from a relatively unknown Australian company named Redgum. My friend who is a vinyl maniac with a super custom Supratek is always shocked by how good it is. You can find them at an A-Gon dealer, Quest For Sound . No affiliation just a customer.

If you have a bit of electronics experience or if you do not mind the DIY thing, I would recommend Bottlehead’s Seduction phono amp. It easily beats the pants of anything I have heard this side of grand and retails for under $300. ($275?) In addition, you can upgrade it over time as your finances allow.

Recently I took mine over to another 'phile who had some very serious Krell gear, and he very impressed with the sound of the Seduction. Either that or he pretended to be! ;-)

The seduction was my second build ever and proved quite easy. Mine has been 100% reliable and I have been using it on and off for almost 5 years.

The phono is really a critical piece of gear when it comes to listening to vinyl so do not skimp on it.

Regards
Paul

A friend of mine who is very well-versed in guitar amps/tubes is skeptical of the bellari:

"It's basically a tube mic pre repackaged .... this company makes 'tube' mic pres & they aren't good. It isn't a true tube design, they blend the noisy 'tube' signal with a cheap op amp signal. It's not a true clean tube amp signal. It's the wrong tube... too noisy.

Try to find another phono pre which uses 12ax7 tubes. I bet they don't use them."

Bellari Rolls VP129 Phono Preamp is a bargin and sounds way sweeter than 200USD should buy. Great tube sound.
Happy Listening!

does anyone know how the Bryston internal phono stage (same one as their preamp) would compare to something I would buy new for $200?