As many of you can sympathize, I’ve owned and built a fair number of phono preamps through the years and the best bang for the buck preamp I’ve had in my system is the Hagerman Bugle. The Bugle 3 is in your budget at under $200 right now and to my ears sounds better than the Bottlehead Reduction, Schiit Mani, and Jolida JD9. It’s customizable in that the op amps can be changed and the power supply can be upgraded (the latter of which I highly recommend.) A Bugle 2 full kit is also available for more serious customization for about $100 if that route is preferred. Good luck and let us know your decision!
Helping a kid out
So long story short I got neighbor kid into audio and to appreciate listening to music on something other than a cheap Bluetooth speaker. He’s pretty young but a good kid, a hard working honest kid. So far he’s accumulated his old mans Dual turntable that I helped him clean up and installed an Ortofon 2M Blue on it, a nice but older Marantz integrated and a pair of Elac Debut 2.0 B6.2 speakers. I hooked him up with a pair of Kimber 8TC speaker cables I had retired a while ago (lol, probably making them the most expensive part of his system). He’s looking to upgrade and I suggested trying out a dedicated phono stage. I’m assuming his budget is in the $200 range and I told his old man I wouldn’t let him buy something stupid. I had no idea the sheer volume of phono stages in this price range on the market. What would you guys and gals suggest? My knee jerk reaction is Schitt Mani and I read a few good things about a Bellari unit but holy cow the choices are infinite. Maybe something a little higher end but used? Extra points if it can be purchased from Amazon but that’s by no means a deal breaker.
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- 63 posts total
- 63 posts total