Built-in phono stages

VAC Renaissance Signature Mk. II

One of the poorly understood issues with preamps is that they must control the interconnect cable. The technology to do that, to obviate the effects of the interconnect cable, was developed nearly 60 years ago, but it rarely gets used in the home (that technology BTW is known as the low-impedance balanced-line system).

Outboard phono sections face this issue, just as line sections do: in most high end audio systems, the interconnect cable behaves like a filter, filtering not only frequencies, but impact and staging information as well.

The only ways to avoid this are 1) equip the stand-alone phono section with proper cable-driving ability (none that I know of have this BTW) or 2) build the phono section inside the same box with the line stage, thus avoiding the connectivity issue altogether.

Solution 2) above means that for best operation, the preamp's power supply rails had better be quiet! so as to avoid interaction.

I'm really happy with my Modwright SWLP. It has the SWP phono preamp incorporated into an upgraded SWL linestage.

The darTZeel full-function preamp is remarkable. It is in a different league above that of the CAT.

I used a Janus from Aesthetix and it was magnificent. I had to sell it to raise cash just recently, and boy was I sorry to see it go. My separates (Blue Circle linestage and EAR 834p) that I still owned went back into the main system, and what a disappointment it was to hear it! (And those are GOOD products!)
I'm a believer in integrated phono stages now. The one drawback is that many integrated phono stages do not have the gain and loading adjustments that we all want to have. The Janus did have gain and loading adjustments, however.

Cheers.