Joule LA150. No question phono stage very close to the Rhea as well as Lamm LP2 in recent listening session at a friend's. A lot less cash than the other options as well.
Preamp with near-reference quality built in phono?
First some background. About 6 months ago I decided that I want to get off of the continuous upgrade path, and plotted a 2-3 year course for purchasing high quality, reference or near-reference components. The first itch I satisfied was my digital source; I threw away all of my "budget" transports, DACs, upsamplers, digital cables, etc., and purchased a high-quality single-box machine that does a number of things well and has the most musical red book playback I have heard. I then turned my attention to analog. I have not finalized my choice of arm and cartridge, but my table is flexible enough to support many.
Here is my current dilemma: I currently want to upgrade my phono preamp to something that compliments the rest of my system a little better, and that is flexible enough to work with as I settle in on a cartridge/arm combo (for example MM and MC would be nice). Concomitantly, I have begun to wonder if my decision to go with a passive linestage was a good one for the long term. I have read the arguments both for and against the passive, and having tried mine in someone else's system, I have found that its performance can be grossly impacted by changes in surrounding components. So my question is this: does a full function preamp, with phono, exist where the built in phono stage is comparable to best of breed, stand alone phono preamps? Since this is a long-term project, budget is not a huge concern, although I would like to stay under $10k if possible.
Here is my current dilemma: I currently want to upgrade my phono preamp to something that compliments the rest of my system a little better, and that is flexible enough to work with as I settle in on a cartridge/arm combo (for example MM and MC would be nice). Concomitantly, I have begun to wonder if my decision to go with a passive linestage was a good one for the long term. I have read the arguments both for and against the passive, and having tried mine in someone else's system, I have found that its performance can be grossly impacted by changes in surrounding components. So my question is this: does a full function preamp, with phono, exist where the built in phono stage is comparable to best of breed, stand alone phono preamps? Since this is a long-term project, budget is not a huge concern, although I would like to stay under $10k if possible.
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If you can live without a remote, I would would look at Klyne Audio Arts. Stan makes one of the best preamps with phonos in high end audio. http://www.klyne.com |
Remote control is not a deciding factor to me - more of a nice to have. My current linestage actually requires the remote to switch between sources. I am very seriously weighing the tube factor. In my second system, which we use for entertaining, etc., I am using a tube pre with a solid state power amp to great effect. So I am thinking this type of combo may be beneficial in my main system as well. |
As all of the components listed above can be very good to excellent, do not disregard the importance of synergy. I feel like I am beating a dead horse, but due to my many upgrade experiences, one piece of equipment may sound glorious within a specific system, yet be lacking in another. For example; I have recently run an Atma-Sphere MP-1 with A-S amps into Avalon speakers. Not until I swapped cabling and tweaked the front end did I achieve a very musical presentation. I also own a Jadis JP 80 preamp, which I have found to be one of the most musical components, making it one of my favorites. With a Jadis amp I found it musical, but golden-honey colored. With a pair of Classe CAM 200's it retained much of it's musical character, but had better delineation, much deeper bass response and just plain sucked me in. Still colored. But along side the Atma-Sphere amps it lacked the speed, the bloom and most importantly, the involvement. This is just one example of my endeavors in the mix and match game. It compels me to criticize the audio magazines for reviewing a component, often without the capability to enter in another piece, possibly more fitting. Recently, Robert Harley reviewed the Avalon Eidelon Diamonds, and although for the most part he well complemented the speaker, he critiqued (I paraphrase)the speaker as being less capable than similarly priced speakers of reaching the lower frequencies. With my Atma-Shere amp/preamp combo I agree, but with the Jadis/Classe the bass is deep and extremely musical. I realize I have left the topic, but like many of you, I continue to search for a system that comes closer to a live performance. Somehow, getting the detail without losing the body and soul is a real trick and I do not believe any one component or cable or listening room for that matter, can offer that. My 15 years in this "holy grail" search has taught me to trust the listening.... BTW, all the pre's listed, needless to say, are really, really good. |
- 25 posts total