@larsman +1 - Thanks to prior comments by you and many others about the Herron Audio phono pre, that ended up putting me on the trail of the Herron VTSP - 3A preamp, which I am thrilled with!
thoughts on adding phonostage
Thinking of adding a phonostage/upgrade cartridge on current set up;
EAT b sharp turntable
rogue audio cronus magnum iii
goldenear T66 floor speakers
KimberKable ascent 8tc speaker wire and PBJ interconnect.
currently I have a ortofon bronze 2M cartridge. will upgrade to EAT jo no.5 , Hana ML or ortofon MC quintent bronze depending on best price etc. excited to actually hear the difference as i think the set up sounds pretty good right now.
question is, thoughts on phonostage? the cronus magnum iii has a built in MM/MC phonostage, woudl it be overkill? and do i pair the phono to the rogue audio, or to the EAT turntable, or can I go with another brand?
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I used to have a Rogue RP1 preamp and my experience was that while the headphone amp wasn't very good, the phono preamp was pretty good. I wanted to try a SUT and since then I'm using a different preamp that doesn't have a built in phono input. I got the basic MM only version of the EAR Phonobox tube phono preamp with the EAR MC4 SUT. The price isn't unreasonable compared to some options. The MC4 SUT has different inputs that allow you to use it with different cartridges, or try different settings for different sound, and I've been very happy with the sound and improvement after adding a SUT. |
@pmzn if you dont want the sound to be too "warm and soft," dont get a warm and soft phono stage. that doesnt mean dont get a tube phono stage. |
Congrats on a fine system ! I had a Cronus Magnum II and it is an awesome sounding amp that creates a large 3D soundstage. Also heard the T66 many times and can imagine a great match with the CM III. Ordinarily the first thing I would recommend are to seek some KT120 tubes- but in your case the T66 speakers have a powered bass module and the KT120s will offer minimum value. I do recommend an upgrade to the center preamp tube- try to find a NOS amperex 12AU7 tube- it will upgrade the sound stage and clarity quite a bit- see audiotubes.com (Brent J). As for the cartridge- a nice low output MC cartridge is a great upgrade from an MM cartridge. You'll hear a cleaner, smoother and more dynamic sound. The Hana is a great value. As for phono stage another great value is the Lehmann Audio Black Cube SE II. It has flexible gain and loading and a two chassis system with isolated large transformer power supply. This makes the sound even cleaner and more dynamic that typical phono stages that use op amps. Those two are no brainers in the audio world and will sound much better than the Ortofon MM. I had an Ortofon 2M black and the upgrade to a low output moving coil was significant. Peace and good luck. https://www.lehmannaudio.com/phono-stages/black-cube-se-ii-sv-edition.html |
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