Recommendations for MM Phono ~ Tube or Solid State

I'm throwing in a vote for Barry Thornton's Austin Audio Black Swan MM/MC phono pre.  Unprepossessing, to say the least, little black box, all the dials you could ever want on the front, under $1800 and incredibly neutral and given to on-the-fly adjustment.  An audition may change your mind about a lot of things.  In my system it seems as invisible as I never thought possible, but if visual appeal for your friends' admiration is important, go ahead and spend more.  A lot more maybe, but likely better spent elsewhere.

On the Black Swan, the capacitor loading switch on the right (per the photo on the website) is labeled in uF (microfarads). That means if you select 0.22, for example, you are loading the cartridge with 220,000 picofarads (10 to the -12 Farads).  There is no way that would be advisable for any type of cartridge, so I assume the label of the control is just wrong OR that is not a control for phono load.  The capacitor load selector on the left makes sense for an MM type. Also, with all the gain options, it's too bad that 60db is the max phono gain for an MC, and I am kind of curious why so many load options for MM, but no 47K option, although 50K is close enough.

@lewm  : Other critical issue is its noise measured level for MC that's lower than 70db. Well you can't ask a lot more at that low market price.

R.

Dear @lalitk : A subjective learning approach and the objective one both have its own limits where at that limit point one approach needs a help by the other and then looking with both approaches we not only learn but in true can grow up in favor of our enjoyment and in favor of the quality levels of the MUSIC LP reproduction.

Normally the gentlemans that go with only the subjective approach to take decisions are just followers of other audiophiles that have same stand alone subjective approach with out be aware of that limit point.

With all respect I think that in this specific SUT issue your approach stays at its limit and with you just can’t elevate the quality analog reproduction in your room/system and my take here is that you need to show to your self ( not to other audiophiles including me. ) that open mind you are talking about.

If we mix subjective and objective know-how/skills each one us will take way better audio decisions always along that we are really investing our money instead to just spend it.

In this thread you already have almost all the objective true reasons why don’t use a SUT and why is better for the cartridge signal MUSIC a high gain active units.

R.

@rauliruegas 

I tried to find a middle ground with you and that was clearly a mistake on my part. You’ve got me beat on the stubbornness front :-) 

Peace!