@pindac Nicely said.
Solid State Phono Stages
I used to be an all-tube guy, but I’ve now ventured into the realm of high-end solid state with T+A and no longer have any itch to go back heavily into tubes. Now, the only tubes I have left in my system are in my Modwright PH9.0X phono, and from what I’ve demoed against it, it seems to be a giant killer. I do love it, but I’m curious to try a higher end solid state phono stage to see what more noise and more music might sound like. Unfortunately T+A does not have a standalone phono stage, so I’m looking at other manufacturers and open to other opinions.
I currently have a Clearaudio Innovation Wood table and Air Tight PC-1s cartridge. i listen to a wide range of music, from Zeppelin to Vivaldi to Beck to Coltrane to Yello. The stage would ideally have between 65-74db of gain, maybe adjustable to 60db at minimum, and have variable impedance values. A balanced output stage would be ideal. I don’t ever really plan to have a second arm, but most stages that retail over $7K tend to have multiple inputs anyways.
My budget would be at tops ~$8K for a used unit. The unit that is sticking out to me from what I’m reading about is the Simaudio Moon 810LP. Another high on the list is the Esoteric E-02. I’ve also come across the Pass XP-27, the Gold Note PH-1000.
I’m looking for a stage with some personality in its character, not one that is overly refined. I’d love for it to be dynamic and bold when it should be, and also gentle and refined when it should be.
The only solid state stages I’ve ever owned and tried were the Pass Labs Xono, which was clean sounding but a little noisy and brittle sounding compared to a PS Audio Stellar Phono. I’ve liked all my tube phono stages better than both of those units.
I’ve also considered going further up the tube stage route, looking at Doshi 3.0, Aesthetix IO Eclipse, but I’m hesitant unless I can hear those in place.
What solid stage phono stages have you loved, and what have you compared them to?
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Dear @herman @thiefoflight : " at the end of the day it’s how it sounds to me, and in my room, and that matters the most. "
I agree with you and with herman too about those 10db developed by almost any room system where 0.4db deviation can see " silly " to considerate. What any one of us like to listen how it sounds always has different quality levels. We can be satisfied iwht a truly expensive room/audio system but even there exist other " better " quality levels. Of what depends that wuality levels/grading of what we like? depends of many room/system issues but mainly of what be our MUSIC/sound targets. Through the years as almost any one of you I builded what I have trying to achieve that target and still am in that quest. My target is try to stay nearer to the recording no matters what and for I can stay nearer to the rcording any room/system link is critical to achieve that target. At each single liiiiiink in the system chain I must look that that link develops the lower any kind of distortions from the source to my ears. If we are talking of the way imperfect analog medium the inverse RIAA eq. curve deviation is way important because any db fraction affects at least one and a half octave and obviously its harmonics. Phono stage is only and example of what I look to achieve my target and this is why my hono line preamps has a deviation RIAA that measure 0.011 db No this kind of specs is not what makes the whole difference on what I'm listening but that ridiculous deviation RIAA counts in the overall room/system MUSIC/sound reproduction. I take care at any system link.
In the other side a swing of that silly 0.4db amkes me think that something is not really good in that expensive phono stage design, that's all. Today a 2k phono stage gives us 0.1db in that spec. It's not a true critic to the OP unit is only a " way of thinking in " loud " way ". The main advantage that gives us that target and how been there is that if we have any system link at its minimum distortion levels there is no way that the room/system MUSIC/sound reproduction don't like it: no way, always will like any one of us . I don't try to disturb the op or any one else and I don't want to derail the thread.
R.
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@rauliruegas Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I’m still curious, though - I asked before. Are you referring to the 0.4db on the BMC or the Audionet? One thing I am skeptical about is uniformity of measurements. Sometimes manufacturers will state a weighted average vs the lowest performing spec across the frequency spectrum. In that case, across most frequencies, the BMC is performing closely to that 0.011db spec. It only deviates that in the low bass regions, which are then able to be additionally compensated in the settings. I would say that in the least, I applaud BMC for publishing the performance across the frequency range, which most other manufacturers are not inclined to do. |
@rauliruegas Thanks - can you share where you saw that? |
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