@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.