Best cost no object tube phono

Yes Davey you and Raul might have been invited, but where obviously also disinvited on several occasions. You have a grudge against WBF and expressed that grudge in the Wilson V thread as late as yesterday, that why i commented on your previous shenanigans. I did sign up to Audiogon with kps25sc, back in 2007 for buying equipment, long before joining WBF, but did not post in this forum until much later. I can post in both forums, not like you ! I do prefer WBF by a wide margin, maybe because they sanitize it from classy people like you and Raul, you two obviously belong together !

Lagonda, your are lucky that your above post has not been 'sanitized'...i certainly believe it should be. Both Raul and I have the same opinion -- you clearly have a high level of frustration, distress and anger...that doesn't belong here.

Hello there: I came across this thread this morning, after a sleepless night fussing about the "new" Pass Labs XP-25 I installed yesterday into my system. I hope this thread is still alive. My question concerns the XP-25 phono stage, and what I am perhaps doing wrong with it, because - contrary to all the glowing reviews - it does not should good. I hope some of you Audiogoners have a personal experience with this instrument, and can tell me where my problem might originate.  here is some background:

I use a Linkwitz LX521.4 loudspeaker pair, which produces an extraordinarily deep soundstage with pin-point accuracy of the instruments, singers, percussion, etc. on that stage. The late Siegfried Linkwitz was a good friend and my wife and I spent many delightful hours at his home listening to his latest creations, of which this one is the last (https://www.linkwitzlab.com). I bought the speaker kit from Frank Brenner in Germany, together with his integrated Powerbox amps (https://www.linkwitz.com), and built the speakers myself using the precisely matched SEAS cones. There are two central points to the eprformance of these speakers: first, they are open-baffle designs, where the peculiar shape of the baffle creates a circular sound wave between the front and rear of each speaker. Second, each speaker cone is driven by its own dedicated amplifier after the signal is split up in an active crossover (part of the Powerboxes) to match the optimal response curves of the individual speakers (4 channels/ 6 cones). Moreover, the Powerboxes (one needs one for each channel) are integrated with a DAC and preamp. The result is first of all fatigue-less listening and seamless frequency reproduction. I use a MSB CD transport and DAC (Platinum Signature), which does a fine job keeping the digital information sounding as "natural" as it gets; I use the analog signal from the MSB DAC, bypassing the one in the Power Boxes. My analog end is a ProJect 10 Carbon tt with a Benz-Micro LPS MC cartridge (37 Ohm inner resistance). And here's where the rubber meets the road: my first phono stage was a Lehmann Black Box SE II, which came highly recommended by Mr. Fremer. It sounded fine and gave me some idea what my speakers would be capable of in terms of staging. And it was completely quiet! But reading through many blogs and other Stereophile recommendations, I decided to have Dave Slagle build me a custom-wired SUT (1:15 all copper) and use the Lehmann in MM mode. Expectedly, that gave me more of everything: larger images, wider (but not deeper) soundstage and a fuller midrange. And yet I still had this strange modulation in the highs (my wife calls it "buzz") which to me sounded like a load/impedance mismatch of sorts. Especially soprano voice (I am a Callas fan) came across almost shrill in the coloratura passages.  So, I was happy to I read Herb Reichert's review about the Japanese Sunvalley SQ1616 tubed phono stage (https://www.stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-42-sunvalley-audio-sv-eq1616d-phono-equalizer) and its sound characteristics. Maybe a tubed front-end was the solution. So I purchased a brand-new unit from the Canadian importer Victor Kung, who equipped it with a German set of NOS Telefunken tubes and a large ELROG ER274B rectifier (by itself a $1,200 item). In any case: the sound was a two edged sword: the soundstage became even deeper and the performers, whether opera, orchestra, or Pink Floyd appeared with very sharp focus, almost holographically. In this sense this little wonder showed wonderful synergy with the LX speakers. But: there was a distinct and persistent  hum, regardless where I would put the ground lug from my TT. And on top of it, the sharpness in the highs was now even more emphasized. Bummer! So I kept reading about the other phono stage options out there, which would not need me to takeout  a mortgage on our house. So the Ypsilons, CH Precisions or FM Acoustics, even Boulder were out of the question (for now, at least), but two others came up consistently in various fora and reviews: Audio Research and Pass Labs XP-25. I remembered the AR from a previous Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, where I found it too "sharp" for lack of a better word. The Pass, on the other hand, had consistently great reviews and J.R. Boisclair of WAM Engineering, who helped my with the proper set up of my Benz cartridge, called it spectacular, using one in his own rig. So, when a used XP-25 came up on US Audiomart, I went for it. It arrived two days ago, and the seller wanted me to try it out before either paying for it or sending it back. The two-box unit looks new and the contacts are shiny. So, I replaced my Sunvalley/EMIA combo with the XP-25 and .... it hums! One of the things all reviewers pointed out was the "complete silence" of this phono stage, but this sample has a low, but distinct hum, no matter how I ground the TT. That was a real downer, but even worse: my priced deep and articulate sound stage collapsed. First, I felt moving in the concert venue from y favorite row 12 to row 5, but even so, the soundstage stayed between my speakers, and did not open up behind it, leading to a wide rendering of Callas' occupying the entire center, almost like a cut-out. What the hell is going on here? I am lost for ideas. Now, the XP-25 allows for almost countless permutations of resistance- and capacitance loadings in combo with three gain setting, and by spending several hours of switch-and-listen, I came up with a setting that eliminated the "buzz" in the highs, however, again with a cost: the sound is now much "thicker" and also too warm, making a soprano voice sound almost like a Mezzo. Anyway: I am sorry for the lengthy contribution to this exquisite audience, but you know how it is once you fell into the Rabbit Hole: I literally could not sleep last night, pondering what I might have done wrong or overlooked. So, please, help!      Happy Holidays!

Reimarc, You need an in-home evaluation by another experienced and knowledgeable audiophile. Your story is much too complex to be addressed by anyone who hasn’t been in your listening room. I assume Dave Slagle knew you were using a cartridge with a 37 ohm internal resistance. Because pairing that with a 1:15 SUT is tricky. Of course, now you are presumably not using the SUT with the XP25. And your issue is not with the XP25 so much as it is that you are surprised the XP25 did not cure your pre-existing problem(s). Can you boil down your lengthy story to one or two sentences? That usually gets better results here. By the way, no one "needs" a $30,000 and up phono stage, like any of those you apologized for not being able to afford, in order to enjoy noise-free vinyl.