I purchased a Trumpet earlier this year as a result of the many good reviews from @mulveling here. He has (and has had) a lot of phono stages to compare the Trumpet to, some (much) more higher priced, and he rates the Trumpet extremely high in comparison. So, after much thought, I jumped in and purchased one.
I like it a lot. A very warm, full, big, and rich presentation. Digs deep across the range. Obviously that can be changed to some degree with tube rolling. All very subjective, so I’ll leave it at that.
Carts make a difference as well. I started with my Soundsmith Zephyr MKIII ES high output (2.4mV) MI, but just very recently installed a Soundsmith MIMC Star Lo output (.4mV) version of the Zephyr. I do believe I like the Trumpet with my lower output cart as it seems to perform even better to my ears, and also provides additional tweaking for presentation preferences.
Some do not like Jim’s decision for the power supply set-up, but as Jim has stated, he feels he got almost all the performance of his earlier and much higher cost Trumpet phono stages for a fraction of the cost. I have no complaints.
In terms of Jim and his company, I have had no issues. The couple times I have reached out to him he has answered fairly quickly. I live in Ohio, and the Trumpet arrived about a week from Hawaii after ordering. I have no doubt if there is a problem, Jim will resolve it. He’s a ‘one man band’, so all issues will be directly dealt with by him. And with a 10 year warranty, that also isn’t bad. He has been around for a while, and seems very passionate about his products.
I like it a lot. A very warm, full, big, and rich presentation. Digs deep across the range. Obviously that can be changed to some degree with tube rolling. All very subjective, so I’ll leave it at that.
Carts make a difference as well. I started with my Soundsmith Zephyr MKIII ES high output (2.4mV) MI, but just very recently installed a Soundsmith MIMC Star Lo output (.4mV) version of the Zephyr. I do believe I like the Trumpet with my lower output cart as it seems to perform even better to my ears, and also provides additional tweaking for presentation preferences.
Some do not like Jim’s decision for the power supply set-up, but as Jim has stated, he feels he got almost all the performance of his earlier and much higher cost Trumpet phono stages for a fraction of the cost. I have no complaints.
In terms of Jim and his company, I have had no issues. The couple times I have reached out to him he has answered fairly quickly. I live in Ohio, and the Trumpet arrived about a week from Hawaii after ordering. I have no doubt if there is a problem, Jim will resolve it. He’s a ‘one man band’, so all issues will be directly dealt with by him. And with a 10 year warranty, that also isn’t bad. He has been around for a while, and seems very passionate about his products.