Anthem getting into two channel with new STR pre-amp-- anyone heard it?

Would the STR preamp be a good choice for vinyl ? I’m hesitant to purchase considering I wouldn’t be using ARC for a vinyl rig I’m guessing ? Thanks guys 

@kingkcryan - The STR Preamp has some really nice features for vinyl, including both MC and MM inputs, adjustable loading, and adjustable de-emphasis curves for non-RIAA recordings. I’m thinking of borrowing a turntable, just so I can experiment with them. From that, you can infer that I don’t know yet myself how the phono stages sound.

I like ARC a lot, and if you want to use it to smooth out bass bumps or other parts of the frequency range, it is just as applicable to vinyl as to a digital source.

To use ARC and some of the fancy phono features, you have to let the preamp convert any analog signal to the digital domain (which it does at 192kHz, I believe) and back again. Only *your* ears can determine whether that will affect the sound enough to bother you. For my part, I consider the STR to have the most transparent DSP of any analog or digital product I’ve used. (Those include the $9k Weiss mastering EQ and $8500 decades-ago Cello Palette Preamp, among others. Not to brag, just to give my experience base.)

If you are interested in the STR Preamp, my suggestion would be, get one on trial and see what you think yourself. It is excellent for digital, and I don’t see any reason to rule it out for vinyl. You probably have seen the reviews, such as this one.

I hope that helps.

Mike

Hi Dears,

I recently changed my Goldring Eroica with a Zyx Ultimate.

I have a STR preamp and I use the MC phono input.

When I started with Zyx (convert mode) I immediately remarked that the sound was "poor" (dark, dead) compare to the Eroica. I decided to adjust the correction curve to 450B-10.7. 

However I decided to determine the origine of downgrade and I tried the pure analog mode with music and test record.

Since this cart change I have a huge difference of sound when comparing the pure analog mode vs the convert one 500R-13.7 (RIAA), ARC is disengaged of course.

With the Eroica the difference in pure analog mode was much less audible, with the Zyx, the sound is dark, like an old radio set. 

It looks to be an impedance issue, but the charge cannot be adjusted in the STR.

The Eroica is given 12uH / 8ohms

The Zyx for 4ohms, no info about the inductance.

Is there anybody who is experiencing such an issue?

Thanks a lot,