Musical Surroundings’ Garth Leerer explained that the success of his company has hinged upon his ability to find and work with great designers. Often these relationships grow naturally over time and depend on the perfect alignment of certain circumstances, as was the case when Northern California designer Michael Yee needed someone to market his Phonomena phono stage: It was too inexpensive for one distributor, too expensive for another, but just right for Leerer; and, so, a long relationship was born.

In the case of the Fosgate Signature phono stage ($2500), Jim Fosgate had been tinkering with the design for nearly 30 years. After a break from analog, Fosgate wanted to get back into vinyl. He first became a customer of Musical Surroundings, and later approached Leerer with a design. The Fosgate Signature is an all-tube, MM/MC design at a real-world price, “a dream product” for Leerer.

Along with the Signature phono preamp and Fozgometer azimuth tool (reviewed by Michael Fremer in our May 2010 issue), Fosgate will design a line stage and power amplifier for Musical Surroundings, to be debuted at the 2011 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest.