The best phono stage out there?

Noise floor is not the final word in phono stages by any means. Some phono stages are quiet, until you put on a record and realize that there are an awful lot of ticks and pops. Other phono stages (usually ones with passive EQ) may have a slightly higher noise spec but will not play the ticks and pops so bad, even though they have the same bandwidth (IOW its not a function of high frequency response).

Since these are subjective issues not easily measured on the bench, there is no specification that will let you know how badly a phono section will exacerbate surface noise- you just have to compare them.

IMO/IME this is an important quality of the 'best' phono stage...

Atmasphere, that is a very good point. To be honest, I was not aware that different phono stages could affect loudness of ticks and pops separate to their noise floor. In such a situation is the audio signal also negatively affected?? How can a amplification device distinguish between a surface noise pop and a "music" pop (please pardon my ignorance if this question reveals a basic lack of understanding on my part).
Which phono stage are really good at reducing surface noises Which phono stage do you use.

Thanks

Ecka, I have owned my Sutherland PhD for a good two years now. The Sutherland PhD IMO does many things well.

Atmasphere of course brings up good points, and I'll agree wholeheartedly, a world class phono stage cannot just be judged by that it does one thing right.

In the course of the past two years, there have been three different Cartridges in my system, a 9-10 year old Benz Micro Glider, which had new life, when the Sutherland was inserted into the system. Then I moved onto the Benz Ruby 3. Of course a better Cartridge, which IMO possessed many similar traits of the Glider, retaining much of that "Benz House Sound", but with some better refinement, and purity of sound.

Then, on a whim, I moved to a new ZYX Airy 3X SB low output Cartridge. Here, was where I finally seen just how well the Sutherland could play, as my pristine LPs took on a CD like quality of dead silence, both from groove silence, and as well, whenever there was the slight tick, or pop on an LP, these were then placed much further in the background versus the other two Benz Cartridges.

There's no doubt about it, that Cartridges as well have a major influence on how a record will sound, and how they handle surface noise, and defects in the groove.

I do believe in general, just like Cartridges, that you usually do get what you pay for, meaning that a $5,000 Phono Stage should outperform a $3,000 one, and usually has a better host of features as well.

Of course, it does too boil down to personal preference Some may try a Manley Steelhead, and come away saying that they didn't like it for whatever personal reasons, and particular likes. Synergy with other quipment is as well very important.

There is one man I know, who is a member here, Sunnyboy1956, who recently sold his Sutherland PhD, and moved onto the Nagra VPS Phono Stage. He uses a Michell Deck, a TriPlanar Arm, and Lyra Skala Cartridge.
Yes, he says the Nagra is an improvement over the Sutherland. Mark

To a degree the stylus profile will affect the level of audible surface noise, as well as how well the cartridge is aligned, especially azimuth.

Hi Ecka, active phono EQ works inside a feedback network in the phono stage (the feedback takes a bit of the output signal and feeds it back to the input). Because the signal propagates through the phono section at a very finite speed, the feedback is always running a little behind the actual signal itself- in effect it never arrives back at the input in time. This problem is not so bad in the bass region, but in the highs it contributes to ringing in the phono stage. Pops and ticks are the sort of thing that will thus become more noticeable if your phono section employs loop negative feedback.

Loop feedback is known to reduce distortion overall, but at a price- at actually enhances (although in trace amounts) certain odd-ordered harmonics. The trouble is that our ears use these harmonics as loudness cues, so quite often loop feedback contributes to brightness or hardness in the phono section, while on paper the specs appear to be quite good.

Balanced differential operation offers several advantages- of course the cartridge itself is balanced, so you can accept the signal in the balanced domain and get less noise and artifact from the interconnect. But balanced differential operation is also lower distortion because distortion is canceled at every stage throughout the preamp. It also can be lower noise. I like to use tubes as well since tubes can operate without loop feedback, and what I found is that if you really want tubes to be quiet, balanced differential is an excellent way to go.

Of course I use our preamps (either MP-1 MkIII or MP-3) in my system- I use both the ZYX Universe and the Transfiguration Orpheus, both exceptional low output cartridges.