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Help.... I'm scared to 'upgrade'!

Help…. I’m scared to ‘upgrade’!

I’m an unrepentant audiophile. I love equipment; buttons, knobs, dials, beautiful design, meters. Of course, I’m enthralled by music. It’s a deeply enriching and important part of my life. This makes me the perfect mark for spending way too much money on gear. I know that, oh well. So I want to upgrade from my cheap phono-stage but I’m full of doubt and hesitation. Let me explain….

I have what I consider a pretty great system, the heart of which is an Accuphase E-470. My speakers are a pair of ATC HTS-40’s (same drivers and specs as the SCM 40’s), and a pair of JL Audio D-110’s. Streaming is through a Bluesound NODE and an RME ADI DAC 2 fs. Mostly that great digital front end is used for TV and podcasts. When I settle down to really listen to music it’s through my analog front-end. That’s what this post is about.

I’ve had four or five phono-stages over the years and in fact I just sold a very nice all-tube one for $4,200. It simply wasn’t as quiet as the AD-50 input board installed in my E-470. I want all of those ‘audiophiley’ qualities like a holographic soundstage, magical midrange etc., but those have to emerge from an extremely quiet background and with extra high resolution. That’s why I sold a Parasound JC 3+ years ago because of too much hiss. And it was easy to sell a Rega Aria because that thing was great at generating it’s OWN noise. Yes, I’m picky. The AD-50 in my Accuphase is nice but the allure of ‘the next level’ is always tugging.

Then I accidentally bought an iFi Zen Phono! I was helping my son-in-law with his first TT and found a great used one here on Audiogon. He lives far away and I wanted to install a nice cart I had and dial it in pretty close before sending it on to him. I recommended one of those based on ‘buzz’ and he ordered one immediately. I did too, thinking I’d send it along with his TT. Anyway, for less than $200 I decided to keep it for a nice back-up. The thing is, it sounds absolutely phenomenal in my system. It’s paired with an extremely customized and modded Rega deck with an Hana Umami Red. I also have a Luxman PD-171A with an Ortofon Cadenza Black. That combo generates some great sound too.

So here it is…. The iFi Zen Phono is just crazy good. I think it’s better than the JC+, the Rega Aria that I had, and even the Luxman EQ-500 that I recently let go. Has anyone upgraded from the Zen Phono and to what? My short list includes the Whest Audio PS.40RDT, the new Accuphase C-47 (which would mean selling as much gear from my stash as possible), or an FM Acoustics FM 122-MKII. What else should I consider? I’m very intrigued by the Thoress Parametric Phono Equalizer too. What scares me is that might spend 6 to 12 grand on a unit that barely outperforms the ‘lowly’ Zen Phono.

Thanks for Reading!
Cheers,
~Oran

128x128oranfoster
boothroyd
365 posts
 

@oranfoster Very nice gear and system!

I hate to ignore your phono preamp suggestions and be that guy who just pounds a blind drum for purposes of justifying my personal decisions but . . .

Consider a transimpedance phono stage such as VDH The Grail, BMC MCCI Signature or the Loco from Sutherland. I believe both of your MC pickups will be perfect contenders with their relatively low coil impedances.

I’ve been a fan of these designs since the Aqvox 2CI (of BMC’s Carlos Candeias) 15 years ago although I believe Ed Meitner did it much earlier on an older Musetex preamp when there were fewer cartridge options available.

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,223 posts
 

@boothroyd , you forgot the Channel D Lino C which can be ordered stripped or with both MM and voltage mode MC inputs and a bunch of other stuff. It is one of the very quietest phono stages going operating on a battery power supply that charges itself after hours. 

boothroyd
365 posts
 

@mijostyn Yes! That’s what I get for late night postings. 🙃

I have recommended the Channel D Lino C for friends needing XLR outputs with excellent results. It is a very full featured unit I should not have forgotten.

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
1,774 posts
 

Those 2 nice cartridges you have (Cadenza Black, Umami Red) are electrically in the "sweet" range for a SUT (15x - 20x), so you might consider one of those partnered with an MM stage. Hum / grounding can be a pain with these, but if you do it right the SUT gives "free", relatively noiseless gain, which seems to be very important to you. The other way to combat noise floor is to move to a higher output cartridge, but I'd hate to suggest that given you've already got very nice low (but not too low) output ones. 

The other suggestion for current injection / transimpedance stages is good too. You tried a few traditional SS and tube stages and didn't like them, so your choices are: 1. Keep trying, 2. Go WAY up in quality & price point, 3. Try a different approach 

lewm
12,526 posts
 

IMO, you haven’t tried a really great phono stage yet, so it’s premature to conclude that the iFi Zen is some sort of giant killer. Most testimonials from other users would suggest that it’s not. It seems to be a good to very good phono stage “for the money “ and not more than that. If you own and only plan to own low output MC cartridges with very low internal resistance (e.g., less than 10 ohms), you might really like the BMC mentioned above or some other current driven phono of high quality. There are several other choices of phono stage that should outperform anything you’ve heard in your system. The other question that arises is whether the linestage section of your Accuphase E470 is limiting your capacity to get the most out of any phono stage. Something to think about.

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