Valve phono stage

@tomwh 

Chakster if you value music that sounds like music, tubes are the way to go. If you like the way CD's sound or go after the black background nonsense, you might want spend your money on something else.

Tom, i think this is not true. I've been into NOS vintage tubes for 7 years, i thought like you. But when i bought First Watt F2J (current-source amplification)  and removed/sold by very expensive push-pull triod amp made OEM by Trafomatic Audio in Europe, i realized it was a huge improvement. Not onlly because the First Watt F2J designed especially for full range drivers, my ex tube amp was also very nice with the same speakers (Zu Audio Druid). First Watt (designed by Nelson Pass) has phenomenal resolution and "real" presentation of my vintage records. I don't care about CD/Digital, i am 100% vinyl dude. First Watt amps is just better, most of my cartridges sounds better with this amp in my system. I like SS gear for practical reason, nos tubes are expensive and i ended up buying many of them (Sylvania, Telefunken, Matsushita, NEC... all for military or audio application, low noise, low microphonic).   

For this reason i have no idea why people are looking for Valve Phono stage ? I was hoping to read some facts, not just esoteric statement. 

My system is much better without any tubes, and i'm sure you lose nothing when you move from tubes to proper SS design like those made by Nelson Pass. 

I think i should try Nelson Pass phono stage in the future! 

Raul, The OP ASKED about “valve” phono stages, preferably balanced ones. In case you don’t know, valve means tube. So naturally the discussion has been about tube or valve phono stages. And your gross generalizations only reveal your own obsession.

 There is a Herron for sale on US auto Mart right now. It is the original but I believe he can upgrade it to the latest version, but I'm not sure about that.    I did a head to head comparison with the Herron, the aesthetics rhea signature and a Zesto and the Herron was favoured by all three present. 

I did a head to head comparison with the Herron, the aesthetics rhea signature and a Zesto and the Herron was favoured by all three present.

Interesting...what was the rest of the system & cables? What differences did you hear?

Chakster, perhaps your problem is that you have been into an NOS vintage tube equipment and maybe not into the best modern tube equipment. And for sure another problem is that you are conflating phono stages with amplifiers. In my opinion, the output transformer of a classic tube amplifier is the weak link in the chain. Nearly all of the qualities of such amplifiers that are denigrated by those who prefer solid state (bass definition, warm coloration, perceived treble rolloff, etc) stem from the use of a coupling transformer at the interface between the output stage of the amplifier and speaker. But that has absolutely no bearing on the consideration of vacuum tubes versus solid-state when it comes to phono stages. In that case of course there typically is no coupling transformer. Huge swings of energy are not required. It’s a completely different ballgame, and the goals of a quality design are completely different mostly because a phono stage has to impose RIAA correction on the signal and because the signal is very tiny in terms of voltage swing. Most likely you know all this, so I wonder why you couch your argument against tubes based on your experience with power amplifiers. And you don’t name what tube amplifiers you’ve played with either.