Tube Phonostage help

Case04,

Feel free to email me if you like, but I'll outline a couple things here that may help you out. The Decware phono stages are a good value and Steve Deckert is exceptional to work with. While I chose the Hagerman Trumpet over the Decware it is only because I was in the right place at the right time and got an awesome deal on a pre-owned one. I may know of one available (not mine and not anyone close to me, something I heard of by word of mouth) and with the added cost of a step-up you may be able to purchase the combo for about $1500.

You may also want to check out the K&K Audio phonostage. Kevin Carter is another designer who is great to work with. While I have no direct experience with his phono stage, I know of others who have and like it a lot.

All three phono stages will give you load options on the MC side and will have sufficient gain for your cartridge. I can probably rattle off a few more but one of these should be your ticket.

an MC cart see´s an impedance of 400 Ohms via E.a.r. step up transformers wich is good for ACE L and M as well as L2 and M2...even my Ruby 2 sounds fine with 400 Ohm over the E.a.r....i had a M2 long time running on the E.a.r. and can tell that it´s a meaty dynamic and really colorful sounding combination...there are just here and there problems with overloading the following amp because of the 67 db gain of the E.a.r. and the high output of the M2 0.8 mV...but in my case it only occured when playing really loud 12"´s on 45 upm...i would go for an L2 or an ACE Low wich is a wonderful sounding combination with the E.a.r. and the resulting volume should also be more than enough...

by the way 400 ohms of the E.a.r. is a good value for a lot of other carts...if necessary you can have lower values while using Y adapters and RCA plugs with resistors of the appropriate value soldered in...i did the same when i had my ACE Low running but i liked the 400 ohm more than lower values. and dont be fooled of the simple construction and low price of the E.a.r. it has a rightness and musicality wich is hard to beat.

I added an audio research LS-7 and bought a Rotel 1080 200 watt amp to pair it with my von schweikert VR4 jrs along with the clearaudio Basic phonostage. That seems to have helped alot, instead of runing everythibg off my Nak AV-10 HT amp. Big difference and even mellowed the sound of the clearaudio alittle bit. Still might add a tube phono just to compare, but i am very happy with the new sound of my vinyl. What a difference. Thanks for all the help.

Add George Wright's $825 WPP200C phono preamp to the list. Wright Sound has a long tradition of making superior audio products and I am sure his phono is up to that mark. He specificaly design his equipment to be used with high-efficiency speakers, so you can be sure that any tube noise level will be extremely low.

$1,500 will certainly get you a lot of phono amp on the used market. Check out the reviews and user comments on the Art Audio Vinyl One, Herron Audio VTPH-1, and Eastern Electric Minimax.