If one wants to stick with solid state, and if one has money to spend, and since the OP wants at least two phono inputs, I highly recommend the DS Audio phono stages. I have heard them both in my house, in my system, and they are among the rare SS phono stages that could compete with my Atma-sphere MP1, albeit I still preferred the MP1 by a slight margin. But the great thing about the TOTL DSA phono stage (about $10,000, I think) is that it has THREE completely independent phono circuits, so you can set gain, load, capacitance, etc, independently for each of the 3 stages, and there's no worries about colorations or signal loss due to the interposition of switches in the phono signal path. The designer is a very nice guy, too, and he seems to have thought of every eventuality in implementing a 3-cartridge/3-tonearm set-up. The less expensive version of two models I heard is possibly only a single phono stage but has all the virtues of its big brother.
What phono pre am I looking for?
It needs to be quiet, fast, dynamic and not cost an arm and a leg, $1500? Plays nice with a VPI/dynavector 20x2 low without a sut. I listen and enjoy most everything but, the British Invasion, Willie Nelson, Gillian Welch and jazz take the cake. I have tubes, an LTA pre, decware set amp and omega speakers.
The new channel islands peq-1 looks mighty fine and dusty uses the 20x2 as his personal cart, which can't be bad? New or used no problem.
The new channel islands peq-1 looks mighty fine and dusty uses the 20x2 as his personal cart, which can't be bad? New or used no problem.
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- 56 posts total
- 56 posts total