Solid state or Tubes preamp phono stage.

I don’t know what to say, @bkeske. I had the same experience as the review. I didn’t even know the review existed until after I tried the unit. 

For context, I borrowed a friend’s trumpet in stock form to compare for a few days against the Modwright PH 9.0X when I owned it, mostly because a friend was looking to sell it and I had a number of spare 12AU7 and 12AX7 around. I found the Hagerman came nowhere as close to the presentation of the Modwright with regards to its fidelity and holography. Rolling the tubes with others such as Telefunken, Philips, and Psvane opened up the sound and improved detail and delivery at the frequency extremes, but still I much preferred the Modwright. 

Just because I preferred the Modwright in just about every dimension, does that make it “better” objectively? It still comes down to the user’s preference, especially with the synergy with the rest of their system. I find it natural that people will debate and prefer one or the other, but in my case, my experience was similar to that of Fremer’s.

@blisshifi 

Well, can’t agree on Fremer’s review. I like Mikey, but there are times he confuses me regarding his ‘take’ on some equipment. This was one. His flippant comment right out of the gate stating it’s power cord could flip it over it was so light, as example, was a bit ridiculous. It comes with a switcher plug, not an EIC connection, no way is that thin cable going to flip the unit over. As I say, I have an SBooster connected to it, but utilizes the stock connection, obviously, but with no fear of the cable ‘flipping’ it over. Yes, it is light weight, and compact unit, but that was a silly comment to make. Then his seemingly confusion on the resistance and gain settings was simply perplexing to me. It was like ‘Mikey, use your ears man’. Obviously these settings can change a carts presentation a great deal, and the overall musical presentation, and I’m not convinced he ever utilized the proper settings for his cart, nor took the time to do so. I just got the feeling he plugged it in, fooled around with it quickly, spun a couple records (two artists I listen to a lot, and disagreed with his assessment of Joni’s vocal presentation), and wrote a hastily written review, then removed it without much interest to move onto something else.

IMO, a pretty worthless review.  
 

@bkeske His review was also not the only one. Just came across this one which coincidentally also classifies the unit as a “classic” tube stage.

FWIW, though the unit may reveal more than a listener had heard before, it doesn’t mean the unit is fully resolving. Just in the way I describe the Modwright above, I thought I was getting everything out of it. It wasn’t until I upgraded to yet another phono stage that I realized that there was even more possible improvement from the Modwright. That said, it is a unit that retailed 3-4x that of the Modwright. At this point, I’m open minded and looking forward to being surprised even more.

Don’t get me wrong, the Hagerman is a lovely stage, especially for its price. I also owned a Don Sachs phono with a fancy Hashimoto transformer which ran probably double the cost of the Hagerman, and I would put them at about head to head with each other. It still is an incredible stage for its price point and still very enjoyable despite what I thought to be its limitations. Hearing the sense of air and space better depicted by other stages, though, I could never live with it. 

@blisshifi

If you had some, my inclusion of the CBS Hytron black plate 12au7’s changed the sound of the Trumpet, a lot. Much more air and extension over the Brimar 4003’s I had in. Along with my old Telefunken smooth plate 12ax7’s which also add much detail, silky smoothness, and clarity. Yes, the right mix of tubes can change everything. 

I get it, you like the ModWright, great, enjoy.

The best 12AU7 is no 12AU7.  Replace them with 12FQ7/6FQ7 (depending upon the filament voltage supplied to the socket) or with 6CG7 (which requires a minor re-wiring of the socket for the filament supply only and requires a 6.3V filament supply).  Then you've got something.