If boulder is tops what is second tier?

Sorry Pedrillo, Boulder is not at the top of any list except extremely expensive for "decent" performance.

The owner / designer is the same person that told me in his room at CES that ALL cable and ALL power cords are BS, they make NO difference and anyone that says otherwise is fooling themselves.

How can you take that kind of designer serious?

This happened several years ago and I am still mad, what arrogance. Fortunately the company sharing space with them took my advice and never showed with them again.

Albert- no doubt he has been breathing fumes from Peter Aczel of Audio Critic infamy.

Just because some audio magazine rag says it is the best, does not mean it is true.
Drjoe

i've listened to the Boulder phono stage a couple of times at shows. it did sound good but certainly not particularly unique.....but until comparing it to another with the same cartridge in the same system who knows?

so far my favorite is the internal phono stage in the battery powered darTZeel NHB-18NS preamp. but there are many i have not personally tried in my system.

based on my personal experience i can say that if the dart is at the top of my list......the Lamm LP2 would be a level or two below that....the Aesthetix Io Sig would be slightly below the Lamm....the BAT-VK10SE would be below the Io. i would add that many have rolled tubes and modified the Io Sig and considerably improved it.....and who knows how that might change my impressions. my experience with the Io Sig was stock.

i am told that the 'big' FM Acoustics ($40k list price) phono stage is similar to the Boulder......and that was the reference used to design the darTZeel.

after hearing what properly implimented battery power does for the dart pre line stage section i would be skeptical that any A/C powered phono stage could compete. but that is just my guess.....until you compare who knows?