Vintage Phono Stage? pros and cons

Jaspert,
In your time using the Accuphase, did it compare well with other decent phono/pres? It was THE megabuck unit by Accuphase at the time and the one time I heard one years ago (as a pre) it was very nice, but I haven't heard one in 10+yrs. It has more buttons than I have ever seen on any other piece of gear, which is cool.

Hi Travis,
Agree on the buttons galore and it's nice as a linestage. It still commands a fairly high value on hifido.
I didn't test the phono extensively against my other phonostages at the time as it was a short term loan from a friend. My general impression was pretty positive , not too noisy, a tinge of warmth but a bit more extra gain and a bit more get up and go would have suited my then setup more.

Dear Musichead: IMHO there is no single Pros on the subject if we are talking of excellence in the quality performance of a phono cartridge.

Exist only Cons and Lewm point out about.

IMHO the worst audio area where vintage electronics must be forgetable is on the phono stage audio link, read again what Syntax posted that I'm agree with.

Musichead, you can't know how good is your XV-1 till you mate it with a better phonolinepreamp: that's the importance critical importance that that stage has and that many of us don't understand in deep.

There are other audio areas where vintage products are welcome but not this one.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

i agree with Myles; current SOTA phono stages are much quieter than vintage. and with phono stages, it's almost all about the noise floor.

almost every sonic aspect of performance is improved with lower noise. and whether we like it or not, the best cartridges are LOMC's which are optimized with the lowest noise phono stages. i especially like how a very very low noise phono can reveal the micro dynamics from those grooves that some of the less current phono stages gloss over.

this is another one of those areas where until you hear a phono stage with a lower noise floor, you might assume that yours is very quiet.....or even as quiet as they come.

Mike,
Where do you think the difference comes from? Is it only in parts selection? Or is it a difference in physical implementation of the design, or is there a fundamental difference in circuit design which makes them quieter?