Phono Preamp suggestions $2000 (pre-rabbit hole tire kicking edition)

I agree about 'slam' but seriously, 'dynamics' usually means distortion. This is because the ear uses the higher ordered harmonics in order to sense how loud a sound is. When the electronics is adding higher ordered harmonics even in very small amounts, the ear interprets this as both brightness and 'dynamics'.


Real musical contrasts (dynamic contrast) can only come from the recording. It really isn't a property of electronics unless those electronics have problems with higher ordered harmonic distortion. This has fueled the tubes/transistors debate for 60 years. Its why tubes are still around decades after they should have been obsolete.

If you want a solid state preamp that isn't bright, you'll want one that is op-amp based and probably doesn't has less than 20dB of gain for any opamp in the circuit. To do this requires quite a lot of feedback (over 40dB) and this allows the opamp to not generate the higher ordered harmonics. But it won't sound 'dynamic' either because its not making distortion- it will simply sound like the music its reproducing.

@atmasphere I'll take your word on it because I don't know anything (I really don't). Music is my way of not setting myself on fire and jumping from a bridge or tall building (anxiety is fun).
So any recommendations then based on the criteria you outlined?

The problem you are up against with a phono section is that the cartridge and tonearm cable have an electrical resonance that can really mess with the front end of a phono section. The resonance can easily overload the input section of the preamp, generating a tick or a pop that sounds for all the world as if its on the LP surface!

The first time I experienced this was about 33 years ago with an employee’s preamp using a Grado cartridge. To be clear, with a MM cartridge that peak can be about 20dB, which with a MM cartridge can be about 5 Volts! Many MM phono sections can’t handle that sort of level, so they make distortion. The thing is, the peak is ultrasonic, so most of the time you can’t hear it (unless you have a tonearm cable that has high capacitance- the higher the capacitance, the lower the frequency of the peak). The distortion is heard as a tick or a pop.

Its far easier to design a phono section using tubes to get a nice high overload margin. With opamps and discreet transistors it can be difficult. So if an opamp is used, its gain must be kept low so it won’t be overloaded. Many designers just don’t think about the implications of this electrical peak, so many inexpensive solid state designs have this problem. It seems that Pass Labs has built good phono sections that have good overload margins- I don’t know if they have one in your price range but its worth a look. 47 Labs makes a very competent phono section that features a current-mode input, and its gotten good reviews. I mention that one becaase it appears that the current mode input has some advantages with reducing the effect of the electrical peak.


If you google ’current mode phono preamp’ you’ll find that 47 Labs is by no means the only manufacturer using current mode inputs. If I were going solid state that kind of phono section is what I would look at first!

@atmasphere  reading about the 4718 and seems positive but very little info out there. Will research current mode phono preamp’  further

I enjoyed my Graham Slee Accession MM phono-pre for a number of years before I just switched to the MC version.