New phono stage from SOTA

Cool, missed this entirely. But, very happy with my upgraded Hagerman Trumpet….and SOTA Sapphire 😉

A $500 phonostage designed to STAND OUT among the many choices seems like a difficult task.

From the article-

"We tested this against many phonostages that cost $150.00-$24,000.00 within a variety of environments with as many types of equipment as possible.  The Pyxi phonostage (named for its size), rose through the ranks and the amount of clarity that was brought to every test was apparent."

So, it isn't far off from a $24K unit?

Think of all the money could be saved for those with $50K+ table setups...

Money saved could be used for the $400 "hot stamper" of Aja, Hotel California and a Diana Krall album! 

Dear @mkiser : That phono stage was designed using op-amps and that’s why is so unexpensive but the design is not a discrete one but all through those op-amps that normally uses very high feedback. Today op-amps are way better than in the past but I prefer discrete overall SS circuits.

SOTA chhhhoosed Wynn for the design and this gentleman was working for several years in Analog Devices Corp. ( now he is a free-lance engineer ) designing between other parts op-amps and even he posted here in Agon that he was in the proccess to a phono stage design and that even that he in the past designed current mode op-amps ( that's the fashion today ) he choosed for a voltage design.

Yes, op-amps has low distortion/noise levels but as any kind of audio item/devices along that high feedback puts his color in the reproduced sounds, no matters what.

That they compared against a 24K phono stage means almost nothing with out know if that 24K unit was surrounded for a room/system of that level. I mean that a 24K phono stage normally is in a room/system way over 150K+ and there I think that any one could hear the differences and not for the better. I can be wrong because I never listened the SOTA.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,

R.

Several years? I was with ADI- designing a wide variety of ICs for almost forty years and was most fortunate to become an ADI Fellow and Senior Fellow.

I am not a free-lance engineer. I retired from ADI a few years ago and I design audio (and other gear) for fun and for free, and SOTA employed the design because they wanted something that truly was state of the art and it was brought to their attention by others that appreciated its qualities.

Your perspective on the effect of feedback is, in my opinion, facile, and does not recognize the psychoacoustic realities at play here.

The phono stage was explicitly designed to satisfy the known Psychoacoustic metrics and be explicitly neutral. Just because it eschews much of the audiophile preconceptions does not mean that it is inferior as substantial care was taken in all aspects of its design, from careful measurement and choice of components to the selection of an unusual architecture, to the actual creation of specs with each unit 100% tested to meet the critical ones.

Perhaps a little more introspection might be worthwhile.

Yeah, I know that is rare in audiophile circles, but perhaps warranted here.