Much good but conflicting advise above, so I'm not going into a specific recommendation, but want to raise a couple of concerns that you want to address with whichever you choose.
- Low level phono signals are much more susceptible to environment noise from radio frequency interference(RFI), EMI, etc. If you live near radio or cell towers, etc. fighting noise is often a huge battle with phono playback. Solid state phono stages are generally much quieter than tube in such environments. Many tube-aholics have concluded that even with tube amps & preamps, the most practical solution is a solid state phono stage. Tube phono stages require the lowest noise tubes and often carefully matched pairs(i.e. often rare, expensive or both)
- Matching of each of these is important, so read up!:
a) tonearm compliance with cartridge
b) cartridge output with phono stage gain
c) cartridge impedance loading with phono stage options(or lack thereof)
This stuff doesn't come easily without much study, so take your time or find someone you trust who can guide you through it. Most of all, trust your ears and try to listen to as much gear as you can if opportunity allows. If not, go slow, buy used so depreciation doesn't kill you, and then treat your purchases as long demoes. Cheers,
Spencer
- Low level phono signals are much more susceptible to environment noise from radio frequency interference(RFI), EMI, etc. If you live near radio or cell towers, etc. fighting noise is often a huge battle with phono playback. Solid state phono stages are generally much quieter than tube in such environments. Many tube-aholics have concluded that even with tube amps & preamps, the most practical solution is a solid state phono stage. Tube phono stages require the lowest noise tubes and often carefully matched pairs(i.e. often rare, expensive or both)
- Matching of each of these is important, so read up!:
a) tonearm compliance with cartridge
b) cartridge output with phono stage gain
c) cartridge impedance loading with phono stage options(or lack thereof)
This stuff doesn't come easily without much study, so take your time or find someone you trust who can guide you through it. Most of all, trust your ears and try to listen to as much gear as you can if opportunity allows. If not, go slow, buy used so depreciation doesn't kill you, and then treat your purchases as long demoes. Cheers,
Spencer