Stand out phono stages

The absolute best--insert whatever turns you on,the truth is it's only the absolute best to the fellow who says it is, in his system and with his ears.

In my system it may not be, and over the years I've had several well known phono stages from Atmasphere, CJ,Levinson,Audible Illusions,Sutherland PHD,to name a few,and most recently I'm happy with the Steelhead.

But which one was/is the best?
I can't say, never had them in the same system or at the same time to compare them,but I can say that each one was the best, at that time to my ears in my system.

I can change my opinion on how my phono stage sounds when I listen thru headphones,-the K702 are clean fast and a bit toppy, the Grados are a bit rounder, slower and more middy.

So if I only had the Grados I would say that my phono stage is warm, great in the mid range and the best ever, if I liked middy warm sound.

I think phono stages are no different than anything else.
If you are serious, try more than just one and definitely compare them in your system.

Only then will you know which phono stage is the best.

As I said, I couldn't say which of the phono stages I've owned was the best, but they were all very good.

Hi Raul, a provocative post that makes a lot of assumptions. Let me just say that enjoyment, involvement and putting on another record are the absolute goals for me. If the components that do this are neutral or coloured is neither here nor there. I dont evaluate equipment cerebrally but use my heart. In fact some of the most neutral, accurate pieces i have heard ove the years have often also been the most tedious to listen to. I hope that helps.

Some folks are easier to please than others.
I know when I started out, an LP12 into the phono stage of my NAD 3020,a driving a pair of Rogers LS3/5A was all I needed to please my ears.

Then I had the opportunity to listen to some other systems and discovered I wasn't getting the whole story.

I wasn't getting all the music out of the records that I had purchased.

Kind of like reading a novel part way through or buying one with the last couple of chapters missing.

As you start your way thru the novel you are quite happy, until you discover that something is missing as you reach the end.

As I am approaching the end of my novel,I want to enjoy all that I can.

What I find tedious is that I have to settle for the paperback version.
Enjoyable?
Yes,I've made some improvemnts to my vinyl listening in the last two years,still I am light years away from my friend's vinyl set up,but much closer than I had been.

Not all components which are neutral and accurate can be said to be tedious to listen to.The great audio debate about musicality vs resolution and high priced audio ripp offs always raises it's head.
It's actually the other way around.

When you get rid of colourations, wooly artifical warmth induced by distortions whether 1st 2nd 3rd or 12th,you realize that all that is left for the ear to enjoy is the music and just the music.
All it takes to come to this conclusion is to hear a system that is so effortlessly good that you don't hear the individual components, just the music, unencumbered by anything you can point a finger at.
The music is just "there".

Why settle for a drink of pond scum when you can sip from a pristine pure spring fed stream?

The absolute best phono stage bar none is the wyetech labs , fits any criteria that you need

It would be informative if Paypet could elaborate some more about his phono stage experiences. Specifically what other phono stages has he owned and in what areas does the Wytech supass the others he has used?

I have seen and heard the upper Wytech amps and pre at the SSI a few years ago, but it was with an SACD player, no vinyl.

The phono stages would no doubt be of the same fine quality, but I assume they are relatively rare in the marketplace and I don't know if Wytech is back in business,so perhaps there are only a few of them out there.

But is it really the best,there was/is/or ever shall be?
And as the old song goes_"Compared to what?".