First, I haven’t listened to most of the phono preamp‘s listed above, but I have listen to and studied the eastern electric phono preamp. And that’s what my vote would go towards, because of quality and bang for buck.
That’s why they’re incredibly hard to find on the used market, if at all, as mentioned above. I’m not even sure if they make them anymore. I sent Bill an email to MorningstarAudio a couple months ago Asking if they still made these, and I never heard back.
But if we look at the design, we see 4 transistors and 4 tubes. Transistors are expensive to manufacture and put in audio gear, so $1500 for this unit is an incredible value IMO.
It is the transistors that flesh out the details, especially at the frequency extremes. E.g. If you had 4 tubes and1 transistor, then you wouldn’t get any extension of the sound that you were trying to reproduce from the tubes!!
That’s why they’re incredibly hard to find on the used market, if at all, as mentioned above. I’m not even sure if they make them anymore. I sent Bill an email to MorningstarAudio a couple months ago Asking if they still made these, and I never heard back.
But if we look at the design, we see 4 transistors and 4 tubes. Transistors are expensive to manufacture and put in audio gear, so $1500 for this unit is an incredible value IMO.
It is the transistors that flesh out the details, especially at the frequency extremes. E.g. If you had 4 tubes and1 transistor, then you wouldn’t get any extension of the sound that you were trying to reproduce from the tubes!!