What separate tube phono stage do you use ?

Any chance of a photo(s) of the interior of your PAB Croft.

noromance, I will do so as soon as I can.  I painted the living room last weekend and have everything packed away.  Now it's a rush to restore the room before Thursday.

I used to be a dealer for Pear Audio, and I did once do a side-by-side comparison of the PAB Classic Phono to the Croft RIAA phono stage.  The board and parts were quite different, as I recall.

Eastern Electric Minimax. I have been using one for almost 10 years, Amperex 12AX7 or Mullard 12AX7 as the driver and GE12AX7 or EICO (Amperex made for EICO) 12AX7s for the buffer tubes interchangeably for the 10 years without any issues. No discernible noise at all without music playing, incredibly dynamic and transparent. MM and MC. I have no idea how it can be bettered and why I would bother.

TRON Seven Reference - big brother to the TRON Convergence in the High-water Sound Room at RMAF, rated by many as one of the Best Sounds of the Show.

Nice preamp doc...

Triangle Art phono stage. Love it!!!!!