Spectral Phono Section vs. External one!

Shawn - The Spectral gear is very detailed and slightly on the cool side. I think matching it with a tube phono stage and or line stage would warm it up nicely. The PH3 is nice but the PH3SE is the way to go if you choose ARC. I do not like the SF, but others will disagree with me. I cannot give an opinion on the Quicksilver, Klyne or Lehmann as I have not heard them. You may want to listen to the BAT VK30SE with phono stage. It may be the perfect solution!

if you're truly interested in a tube phono stage that will mate with your other electronics, you must try the aesthetix io. there's nothing better out there, ss or valves.

I've heard the spectral gear before with the quicksilver,the lehman, and this really cool titianium grey PH-3. Of the three, the PH-3 was head and shoulders the best. That's the one I'd get.

You may want to chk with your dealer; I don't believe spectral gear is spec'd to be used with tube gear. I owned some spectral monoblocks in the past, and was told by my dealer (progressive audio) that a tube linestage wouldn't work with them. Not saying you shouldn't do it, just recommending you do a little homework before chunking down a bunch of $.

Jade- The phono section of the Spectral 20 is outstanding! You would be hard pressed to do better without spending big bucks (aesthetix io). As for external tube phono stages, they should be fine with a Spectral pre-amp though certainly not what Spectral would recommend. Spectral amps typically have a low input impedance (10K ohm) which could give many tube pre-amps difficulty, but not all tube pre-amps. You'd need to know the output impedance of the tube pre-amp in question (prefer < 500 ohm) to determine it's compatibility and keep the interconnects relatively short to ensure good results. Goodluck.