New phono stage arrived

I have good equipment on this system, and cables etc. The room is treated. This components just doesn’t pair with my cartridge and system . The new phono stage is twice the unit at half the cost and size. The sound from the Charisma box is incredible. I made one slight change to the cartridge loading, and have found the sweet spot

Like I said, it is quite possible your unit was not functioning at full capacity.  That's especially possible with tube gear, which tends to "work" even when broken.  Whereas a solid state device is usually alive or totally dead. 

I have it for sale, I just want it out of my life. Pretty much seems to me it was hyped up and not all that good to begin with.

Hi @hilroy48 I had a similar issue which I solved by chance. I got a good deal on a hardly used Melto 1 unit and upon arriving it sounded dry and lifeless. I gave it a week as I thought it needed time to break in. However, it barely improved so I had a hunch that there was a faulty tube perhaps due to shipping. The Melto 1 comes stock with 2x 6N1P-EV (output) and 2x 6N2P-EV (input), uncommon tubes that I didn’t have lying around.

When I opened up the unit, to my surprise, the circuit board was labeled for 6992 tubes instead of 6N1P for the output stage. Luckily I had 6922 Tungsol NOS tubes lying around in my collection and they work perfectly. It is now sounding as it should, sonorous midrange and just delightful, just as the reviews describe it.

The bigger brother Melto 2 comes stock with 6922 tubes, which aligns with the circuit board labeling. Why LAB12 decided to ship the Melto 1 with 6N1P tubes instead of 6922s remains a Greek mystery. Perhaps if the stock tubes were working properly it would’ve sounded good but I believe 6922 is much better and is a huge upgrade from the stock tubes even if not faulty.

So if you haven’t sold it yet, pick up a matched 6922 pair and I think you will be pleased.