Which phono preamp to buy

While most of your money will go into procuring copious amounts of vinyl or finding the best turntable that fits your budget , there are ways that you can still get affordable phono preamps that are also high quality. You can easily blow a bundle of cash on a high-end solution, but luckily there are plenty of models that provide great sound at a totally reasonable price.

Here are our favorite affordable phono preamps, ranging in price from budget solutions to long-term investments. Those looking for a simple plug-and-play phono preamp will love the Rolls VP29 , which has no buttons or knobs and is designed to perform one task and one task only — amplifying the sound of your favorite vinyl to standard playback level with RIAA equalization.

ART Pro Audio has made a name for itself as a purveyor of solid studio gear for some time now. Along with standard RIAA equalization, the DJPRE II allows you to choose between a low-cut and flat frequency response, as well as offering gain control to allow for optimum performance with your specific setup, or to properly feed an input device for preserving your vinyl in digital form.

The original U-Turn Pluto external phono preamp was a mainstay in the Digital Trends testing room for some time, loved for its simple and elegant design, as well as the great sound it provides.

For starters, the Pluto 2 has added a second gain stage, which boosts the overall gain from 36 dB to 41 dB, doing more of the heavy lifting for your receiver and helping to reduce distortion. Additionally, an improved subsonic filter also keeps unwanted noise from making it to your speakers.

Continue Reading » Phono Preamplifiers Pro-Ject Tube Box DS2 Phono Preamplifier Review: Ken Kessler , Lab: Paul Miller Aug 18, Alongside its range of turntables, Pro-Ject's diverse Box series of hi-fi separates — from streamers to phono preamps — has come to define the 'world vision' of its founder One of the nicest by-products of the vinyl revival is the constant flow of affordable phono stages, essential to allow newcomers to adapt to LP playback the line-level-only integrated amps that have proliferated since Thorens, Mobile Fidelity, Musical Fidelity, NAD, Cambridge — there are too many to list, but the go-to brand for me is the one that also 'owns' the entry-level turntable market: Pro-Ject.

Continue Reading » Phono Preamplifiers Primare R35 Phono Preamplifier Review: Adam Smith , Lab: Paul Miller Jun 09, Primare's 'Prisma push' may have focused resources into network-enabling its amplifiers and CD players, but its new flagship phono pre proves its love of vinyl has not waned Even the most ardent vinyl enthusiasts will admit that they can get bamboozled by the whole process of cartridge loading and gain matching.

Some MMs and MCs can be quite particular about the load resistance and capacitance that they 'see', just as most phono stages will have a 'sweet spot' gain setting that varies from pick-up to pick-up. So there's a great deal to be said for a flexible phono stage that offers numerous adjustments. If you're returning to, or just discovering the vinyl LP, then yes, we are. Mobile Fidelity's UltraPhono is an example of what the industry can deliver when inspired, and clearly this is a response to the need for affordable phono stages to render suitable 30 years' worth of post-CD integrated amplifiers without phono stages.

Nevertheless, it's also considerably heavier at a full 10kg because the casework here is steel, not alloy, perhaps in an effort to improve screening.

Having asked PS Audio, it seems likely that all Stellars will move from alloy to steel enclosures in time. The new EAR-Yoshino PhonoBox also called the Phonobox or Phono Box is the replacement for the venerable P [ HFN Jun '94], which has seen a few tweaks and variants over the years, most notably restyles to smarten up the otherwise purely functional styling.

Continue Reading » Phono Preamplifiers Aurorasound VIDA Prima Phono Preamplifier Review: Nick Tate , Lab: Paul Miller May 28, The most affordable product from one of Japan's renowned phono stage specialists, its quirky retro looks won't be to every Western taste — but its musical potential will In Japan, long-playing vinyl records have never really gone away — they just went underground, becoming cool artefacts that sat defiantly away from the mainstream music market.

As the country churned out millions of shiny new Compact Disc players in the s and '90s, the humble LP stood its ground, cherished by record collectors who thought CD to be the replacement for pre-recorded Compact Cassette, rather than vinyl. This is useful for those who are digitizing vinyl.

That can come later, at the actual preamp or power amp stage. The above explainer on circuit components hopefully lifts the lid on the subject of why vinyl records and cartridges from different eras of vinyl manufacturing may require a specific frequency response curve to portray the correct nuance and detail of the release.

Think of them as a filter that mimics the sound of a certain era. Cartridge impedances vary from model to model, and to get the best possible audio quality, these values also need to be matched in a specific way at the phono preamp inputs.

The vinyl gospel for impedance matching of MC cartridges the most problematic, due to their extremely low output is that the impedance value setting of the preamp needs to be roughly 2. If, for example, you happen to be using a classic Denon DL MC cartridge which has an impedance value of 40 Ohms, the close-to-ideal preamp impedance setting would have to be Ohms.

Sure, many designs are simple, if you have a knack for that kind of thing - plenty of schematics can be found online. You can now easily buy any boutique component - from op amps and precious metal film caps to complete DIY preamp kits. Perhaps the best way to understand what makes phono preamps tick is looking into some of the original designs dating many decades back - like the RIAA Stereo Compensated schematic, since its circuitry is still considered a timeless classic.

When manufacturing a record, grooves are cut into the vinyl, and the cut of different frequencies varies in width - high frequencies have narrower width than bass frequencies. To counter this effect manufacturers well, mastering engineers, actually had to artificially boost the highs in order to literally enlarge their grooves and lift those high registers above the noise threshold. This is how the primary purpose of the phono-preamp other than boosting gain came about - to compensate for, or to tame, plainly speaking, the boosted tops as well as sub-bass rumble frequencies and bring them down to normal levels.

The main circuit components achieving this filtering effect are called resistors. They act very much like sentries, only letting certain frequencies through. The cartridge signal passes through a 47K resistor, combined with a pF capacitor - these form the correct impedance of the cart while filtering out the nasty shrill boosted top end content above 30 kHz.

This is a simplified explainer on how a frequency response of a phono preamp circuit is built and needless to say, components with the same readings can come in a huge variety of quality as well as cost. Manufacturers of high-end phono stage preamps rely exclusively on their custom-made or boutique-grade component parts - the stuff that delivers the sweeter treble, cleaner bass and lower noise floor.

We already mentioned the intricate relationship between a record cartridge and the phono preamp. How phono preamps manage sufficient gain figures, especially for LOMC low output moving coil carts is achieved in different ways and that depends on several factors. Firstly, it matters whether the circuit is solid state or vacuum tube - SS designs are considered easier to achieve high gain and low noise performance than tubes as a rule.

Solid state phono stage designs rely on the op amp circuits operational amplifiers and resistors used. Just like DAC hardware chipsets are crucial for digital audio, op amps are important for the gain capacity and the overall musical character of a phono stage. In regards to tube circuits, yes, they can sound glorious but gain optimization in such circuits often require additional gain boosters such as transformers.

They work great with MM cartridges, but not having enough gain, they may require a sidekick to help them manage those difficult low output MC cart signals. Capacitance is a term describing and measuring electromagnetic signal behaviour characteristics like load and resistance, which occur as the signal travels through cable wire, switches and so on.

You will have seen by now that when talking of phono stage specs, we mention their ability or not to adjust capacitance values, in addition to signal impedance and gain and all of that when going from the cartridge into the phono preamp.

This feature capacitance adjustment is most needed with MC cartridges, which produce very low output signals. To deliver the correct frequencies to the phono stage preamp, different MC cartridges have specifically recommended pF values that the preamp needs to match.

This is where we need to note that poor quality or simply too long phono cables running between the record player and the phono preamp as well as pots, switches, and so on that the signal happens to pass through can increase the pF value of a MC cartridge. This increased pF value or excessive capacitance affects the cartridge's inductance.

Excessive capacitance makes an audible difference. The general rule is that high capacitance values reaching the inputs of phono stage preamps result in a darker and duller audio signature. Lower values than recommended for the cartridge would result in an overly-bright and distorted signal. The ability to adjust the pF value directly from the phono preamp effectively cures the problem. Look, stick with us on this. For instance, a contemporary star performer like the Soundsmith Zephyr cartridge has something like - pF value.

A dedicated vinyl enthusiast would also have to take the capacitance specs of their tone arm and its internal signal cable - a worthy model such as the SME Tonearm has capacitance values of Besides powering the system, there is a secondary role assigned to the PSU unit of a phono stage - one of a hum-destroyer.

This percolates through the circuit, limiting the sonic benefits of high-end components. To minimize these mains pollution effects, manufacturers opt for high quality DC to DC converter chips, external high-voltage PSUs Power Supply Units which minimize interference and guarantee plenty of signal headroom. Battery powered phono stages such as the Musical Surroundings Nova II are also popular with purists, as they solve mains pollution problems by completely removing mains-powered PSUs from their circuit.

Balanced and unbalanced connections are often referred to as pro and semi-pro respectively, and can at times have a dramatic effect to audio performance. Generally speaking, balanced connections on phono preamps are rare and are normally found in the high end market examples mostly as a three-pin XLR outputs.

Are they important? Very much so. These are the cases where balanced outputs can come handy and act as effective hum-destroyers. We break down the year's best phono preamps for your turntable system, from four-figure monsters to wallet-friendly budget models. Photo Credit. See the Hegel V10 Best of the Rest 9. See the Schiit Mani See the Rolls VP29 See the PS Audio Stellar See the iFi Audio Zen Phono See the Nobsound Little Bear T11 Phono Stage vs.

Preamp Phono Signals vs. MC vs. Preamp The key thing to understand when buying a phono preamp is this: it is not the same as a regular preamp. Phono Signals vs. Cartridge Types Explained: MM vs. RIAA Preamps: Passive Equalization Explained The above explainer on circuit components hopefully lifts the lid on the subject of why vinyl records and cartridges from different eras of vinyl manufacturing may require a specific frequency response curve to portray the correct nuance and detail of the release.

How Cartridges And Impedance Work Together Cartridge impedances vary from model to model, and to get the best possible audio quality, these values also need to be matched in a specific way at the phono preamp inputs. Input Gain We already mentioned the intricate relationship between a record cartridge and the phono preamp. Capacitance Capacitance is a term describing and measuring electromagnetic signal behaviour characteristics like load and resistance, which occur as the signal travels through cable wire, switches and so on.

Balanced vs. One that support MM cartridges and one that support MC. Their circuitries are specially designed to match the type of cartridge they are suited for. Both versions use a fully discrete design where the channels are totally separated from each other for optimal performance. It is a great preamp. But if you have the budget and determination, there is probably a bit more sonic performance to tap into by selecting the more expensive and more sophisticated Rega FONO over the Rega Fono Mini A2D.

Click here to check price for MM version on Amazon. Click here to check price for MC version on Amazon. All other preamps on this list are solid-state preamps. Which means that they use transistors for amplification. But I have included an amazing preamp for the tube phono preamp fans among us as well.

And that it make little sense to spend much more than that on a phono preamp until the other components of your stereo are of extremely high quality. Some will say much more. I bought the Pro-Ject Tube Box S2 after a year or so researching affordable tube phono preamps, and it is now my default phono preamp. Without missing great dynamics and details. It is absolutely fantastic.

So far, I have not experienced any downsides with a tube phono preamp, if I look away from the fact that it has to warm up for 30 minutes or so before it sounds great. But I was well aware of that. If you are looking for a great first tube phono preamp, I recommend that you save up until you can afford the Pro-Ject Tube Box S2. U-Turn is a relatively new turntable company that have become very popular in recent years. They are based in Woburn, MA, and are founded by real vinyl enthusiasts.

I am generally very impressed with their products, and their Pluto Phono preamp is no exception.