What is the Phono stage you have finished with?

A nagra PLP which is a very good preamp as well , i have not tried many at home, i have owned ARC sp 6 with build in phono which had not enough gain also a jasmine LP 2.0 with seperate power supply which is cheap and good , i am now 42 years old , i will probaly have an all Zanden system in a few years time and call it a day , as that is the best i have heard so far i have not heard it in my own system though its just a gut feeling,and a more esoteric player .

The casework for the Whest PS.30RDT SE is in black but the standard casework for the PS.30RDT is silver. You can get Whest to provide a PS.30RDT in black for an extra charge (which is what I did). The cheesy photos of the PS.30RDT SE on the Whest Audio website do not do justice to the appearance of the black casework actually looks much better than it appears in the Whest photos. In general, I think that Whest would serve themselves if they put some effort into improving the appearance of their website.

after having owned these : blue circle 22-707, whest 2.0, einstein the tt choice, burmester 011, cary ph 302, karan ka lp, cat legend, artemis pl-1, fm acoustics 222 mk3, ear 324.

Over the last decade or so I have owned an Exposure 13, EAR 834P (with and without MC4 transformer), EAR 324, Lehmann Black Cube SE, Naim Prefix/Supercap, Benz Lukaschek PP-1, Michell/Trichord Delphini, Brinkmann Fein, plus in-built phono stages in a Jeff Rowland Concenra, Accuphase E-406, Audio Note M2 and Audible Illusions M3A.

I have also spent at least a week each with an Enstein Turntable's Choice, EAR 88PB, Tom Evans GrooveX, Pass AlephOno, Connoisseur Definitions and a few other lesser phono stages not worth mentioning.

The one that remains is the Exposure 13. It is (was) a fraction of the price of many here, but has not been made for some years and is now quite rare. It has a fixed 470 ohm loading. It is probably exceeded in many respects by many of the phono stages I have mentioned - eg the EAR 324 is quieter and more versatile, the Tom Evans is tonaly more neutral, the Einstein has a more liquid midrange - but for all-round musicality, the thing that makes you forget the equipment and focus on the music - I have not heard anything to beat it. In fact, I recently picked up a second one.

Sebastian, does that mean the ear 324 is the one you've settled on?

Recently, I have been using the phono stage in the Pioneer C-Z1 preamp from 30yrs ago. Very very quiet.