Tube Phono Stage vs Solid State What do you think?

If you get the BAT be aware that you can't always believe what you read, the older units can not be upgraded to be the same as the newer units (different mother board). I've got an older VK P-10 that I'm happy with, except that occasional channel balance adjustments are required and these are a pain in the southern regions (remove cover, warm up 1 - 2 hours, connect meter, tweak, repeat). Newer versions have an auto balance feature.

Dear Stanwal, Wouldn't you think that "great" phono stages should tend to sound the same on a given system. The "great"-er they are, the more they should begin to resemble each other, IMO. I recently had that experience comparing my Atma MP1 phono section to an Ayre P5Xe. While I gave the edge to the Atma-sphere (which I had tweaked to use a hybrid cascode phono input, rather than an all tube cascode as per OEM, so admittedly not "pure" tubes all the way), the Ayre at times could be indistinguishable from the MP1, just a bit more "dry" sounding.

Lewm- If you think about it, it makes sense. For any single individual, the best sounding [insert component here] will tend to converge, because they are closest to that person's "absolute sound" (irony intended; we each have our own absolute).

Dear Stanwal: That you like op-amps it only means that but that that's the best way to go.

As I said: all depends of what you are looking for. If the ASR op-amps fill your gap good for you: that's your quality level " you die for ", mine is different.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

" but not ".

R.