Tube Preamp Paired with Tube Phono Stage?

I have a tubed Joule Electra LA Mk 2 pre-amp and a tubed Fosgate Signature phono pre-amp. The reason its not overkill in my system is the solid state Belles 350A amp and Dynavector 20XH cartridge, so system synergy is very important as others have stated many a time. Your choice of the other components, cables, and interconnects as well as things like footers and room treatments as well as speaker placement can make all the difference in keeping a tubed pre-amp and tubes phono amp together from tipping the sound into the overly warm and mushy. Obviously if you feel the two together might be too much, then your other components need to have a character thats more clear and detailed and leaning slightly toward the bright side of the audio spectrum.

Hello. Thanks for the message. Yes, I'm very happy with the Chinook. I'm amazed it sounds as good as it does using the stock Russian tubes. Prior to this purchase, I really ran the gambit - I tried the Nova Phonomena II, Cambridge Audio Azur 640p, Clearaudio Smartphono, and Ray Samuels Audio Nighthawk. Both the Phonomena II and RSA Nighthawk leaked DC and were returned. It's true what they say - you get a huge improvement in sound quality when you go beyond the $1,000 threshold (when it comes to phono stages, at least). I really think Manley Labs has a solid hit with the Chinook. It's well built, looks good, and performs flawlessly out of the box. I couldn't be happier!

Glad to hear that. I"m looking pretty hard at the Chinook. A friend of mine just got a Zesto Andros....now I'm wondering if I should really stretch. Yikes!

I'm also looking at the Chinook as a potential upgrade to my current phono stage. It's got everything I'm looking for, except one thing: a relatively low gain of 60 dB for MC. This would suggest that it's not adequate for MC cartridges with an output below 0.5 mV, which eliminates a lot of great cartridges. This is almost as frustrating as John Curl's JC-3 phono preamp offering only one impedance setting of 100 Ohms for MC. That one I'll never understand.

Dear Actusreus, If what you say is true about the JC3 load resistor for MC, I share your chagrin, but one might always open the chassis, find said 100R load resistor, remove it, and replace it with a resistor of the desired value. I do agree that the task is tedious, if one wants to play with a variety of cartridges and/or experiment with different load values.