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Phono stage for tube system - recommendations?

I recently swapped my Blue Circle driving Merlins for the well regarded Ars Sonum Filharmonia integrated. I have gained a fair amount of air and presence but lost a smidgen of attack especially on higher spectrum of frequency. Front end is a Shelter 901/SME-V/Orbe SE.

I was previously considering moving from my modified GCPH to a tubed photo such as the K&K Maxxed out, Herron,JLTI Artemis, or Aesthetix Rhea, but am now having second thoughts going all tube, and contemplating upgrading along the lines of a Solid State Phono stage instead.

On the solid state side, the candidates are the usual suspects: Pass Xono, ASR, Whest, Tom Evans.

I'm sure at least a handful of members have come to this fork and have some experiences to share. Thoughts welcome!

Thanks,
Ben
128x128pureretro
nolitan
865 posts
 
Bucketjr,

Thanks, i did look at those specs, etc...
Something to consider if to go tubes.
How do these stack up against the EAR834p or other tube phono amps ? Art Audio Vinly is another beauty.
dopogue
1,773 posts
 
I bought a used Aesthetix Rhea a year ago and have had zero problems. An extraordinary phonostage, and its three sets of inputs, choice of balanced or unbalanced inputs/outputs, remote-controlled loading, gain, and demagging are icing on the cake.
palasr
525 posts
 
Bucketjr, the current model of the K&K uses a pair of 6H23P (the Russian 6922 equivalent). The differences in the basic vs. Maxxed-out K&K are rather significant, and the website illustrates the differences quite clearly. That said, I find my Maxxed-out K&K delightful, and have heard it against some fairly lofty competitors without feeling a huge desire to change, especially considering the price difference. YMMV.

-Richard
dan_ed
2,451 posts
 
At least one of the competitors that Palasr mentions was my Doshi Alaap. IIRC, Richard's K&K held up very well for overall presentation. The Alaap was a much larger sound overall. We both felt that it was a difference mainly in power supplies. My Alaap has separate phonostage and its own massive power supply.

If you want syrup and "musical", you may want to look elsewhere as the K&K is every bit as neutral as the Doshi.
brianhutch
55 posts
 
A couple of years ago I owned an xono and built a first generation K+K[no longer available]I played them in my system side by side as my table had two arms.It was close but to my ears in my system I preferred the K+K and I sold the Pass.I decided to remove my passive bent tvc volume control and its cables from my system and got kevin to build me a maxxed K+K with a stepped attenuator using audio note tantalum resistors.He installed all the goodys available at that time the Cardas caps and 1931 x formers and the audio note resistors on the board and a cartridge loading board.It just killed my homebuilt unit and although I no longer owned the Pass I assume it would have been a similar result.Considering the cost I dont think you can get a new unit with close to the performance of the K+K and if retofit upgrades are available no one is more approachable for advice or help than Kevin.
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