James, I have "The Voice" and am using an ARC PH3 SE I bought new 25 years ago. I have yet to hear a better phono stage in my system. I have not used "the Voice" with it yet as I am still waiting for a new table (I sold the old one) The PH3 SE is in my way of thinking, almost a perfect phono stage. It is a minimalist unit with the minimum of switches. It has just a power switch and a mute switch which are very nice long, easy to hit toggle switches. You change loads and capacitance by soldering resistors and capacitors to large pins on the main board. There are no switches in the signal path. It only has 54 dB of gain so use of a very low output cartridge will require use of a transformer. There is a huge amount of unused real estate inside to mount one. |
Van den Hul Grail SB with vdh Colibri and others, Ortofon A90, Audio Technica ART-1000. The Grail and the ART-1000 are the big discoveries here, both little known and of the highest SQ. Grail isn't cheap but the equal of much costlier top-end stuff. ART-1000 excels with precision, clarity and vivid soundstage. The Grail replaced a PH2 and the change was like moving from a transistor radio. |
Air Tight ATE2. 2 phono MM inputs and 1 Aux. Phono section driven by 12AX7 (ECC803S telef(3). Line section : 2 Ecc88 (in my case replaced them by nos E188cc). PSU incl : 12BH7 (nos Tungsol Sol), 6X4 (nos GEC), EF86 (E80F for me is the best EF86 if you have enough room inside the pre). If you connect the Air Tight ATH2 step up in one phono input you can drive 4 different carts. Sound is very very good and reliability is of the highest level. NOS tubes helps to cook your preferred sound. |
Rogers PA-2 with Hana SL1200. Was going to upgrade TT rig but decided to go for a deal on a used PA-1A and have it upgraded. Don't have it back yet (waiting with bated breath) but when I originally plugged it in I could not believe the difference it makes. I still want to upgrade the TT rig at some point but this is better enough by a lot that it's cured my upgradeitis. Thinking this might be the end game phono pre for me. |
Hello I went through multiple phono pre’s before I popped on a Sutherland 20/20 with Lyra Delos cart. If you want super quiet low noise and have potential for hum,the Sutherland is a good choice. This is a great combo and I also just replaced a Scout 1.1 Shri a new Pure Fidelity Encore table with Origin Live Silver. I’m done...... for a while! Good luck Willy-T |
Sold my Jolida JD 9 (modified: op-amps, caps, dampening, tubes, etc...) to help fund my new purchase. Am waiting (not so patiently) for my new SunValley phono pre-amp to arrive from Japan (via VK Music,Vancouver BC). Until the end of April (expected ETA), I am using the phono preamp in an Elekit TU 8500 preamp, with a DIY step up transformer and ZYX R50 Bloom lll/ ZETA tonearm combination. |
Anyone using a Soundsmith cartridge? And if so what phono preamp are you using? (Individuals with other cartridges feel free to chime in!) SoundSmith cartridge can work with any good phono stage if this phono stage have optional loading and gain for MM or MC. After very simple mod my JLTi mk4 can provide whatever load impedance I want (RCA plug resistors on the back). Latest mk5 also can be modified by the manufacturer to let you change loading for MM. Amazing phono stage! I also use Gold Note PH-10 with PS-10 and WLM Phonata Reference. Current mode MC phono stage from 47 Labs (Phonocube). Optional Luxman toroidal silver or copper SUTs Optional headamp ZYX CPP-1 Too many cartridges here. |
I'm really enjoying my Luxman/Ortofon front end. Turntable is the PD 171a with a Cadenza Black and I love my Luxman EQ-500. The one modification that I did was changing the LED from blue to green. My little trick was applying a tiny bit of transparent tape over the LED and coloring it with a yellow highlighter! |
I am using a rogue magnum stealth and an original rega ios and both are dead quiet even on an ultra low output mc cartridge so i can say that they are very good options. Also the parasound jc3+ would be a good choice and will grow with your table and system. The first two mentioned are also very quiet even on +100 decibel speakers which is very important for lovers of tube amplifiers. |
"Fosgate Signature V2 with Audio Technica Art-9" Same setup as melm. Both(Foz out of production) excellent pieces. Presently have a Kiseki Blue thru the Foz. Soundsmith is a great choice. Get the most you can afford. You will have the ability to send it back when it needs a tune up. Used a $399 entry level Soundsmith Otello. It's "the best" in case of emergency, break glass-back up cart I've heard so far. |
Icon Audio PS1.2 MC with NOS Telefunken tubes - sounds great with the Tele tubes and Hana ML series cart @ 200 ohm load. With the NOS Tele tubes (not new anymore) running $400 - $500 each now I thought I'd try a Hagerman Trumpet MC. It's still burning in but starting to blossom. I upgraded the power supply with SBooster and installed gold lion gold pin tubes. The goal is to get this phono stage sounding as good or better than the icon audio/Telefunken combo and it's almost there. I'm not sure why the IA/Tele/Hanna ML combo sounds so good but it does. As we know...it's all about getting the right match of components that work well with each other and I just got lucky with that combo. Another highly knowledgeable friend of mine recommended the Trumpet MC. He's had his a while now and loves it. It comes highly regarded as probably the best value in a phono stage right now. |
