Gramophone Dreams

I knew Roy Hall was a clever fellow but not this clever. I never thought he could step out of his belt-drive/solid state comfort zone and make this kind of big, radiant, air-moving sound happen. Likewise, I never thought analog at this price could play anywhere near this true of tone and breathy, airy clear. By the time I got to Ives: Variations on "America" played on the Fisk organ of Harvard University, I was shaking my head in amazement, laughing, and thinking how I needed to buy more E. Power Biggs discs because I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the sound of large organs moving giant masses of church air.

Not quite believing the quality of sound I experienced with E. Power Biggs' Greatest Hits, I put on my number-one analog test disc: René Clemencic et ses flýtes (Harmonia Mundi LP HM 384). The Analogue A3 did it again. With this record, the octaves above 1kHz came through more silky-smooth and undistorted than I would have expected at this price.

It was then that I remembered my old theory that there is a unique, beguiling form of audio magic that results from applying the higher (nominally 5mV) output voltages of moving magnet cartridges directly to the grids of tubes, eliminating the need for more active stages to supply the extra 20dB amplifier gain required for moving coils.

To me, a great tube RIAA stage driven by a tuneful moving magnet or moving iron cartridge is one of Audio's oldest and most rewarding blessings.

A3 + 2M Black: I've tried Ortofon's $695 2M Black cartridge on more tonearms than I can remember, and it always sounded tonally balanced, exquisitely detailed, and super-spacious (for a moving magnet). But, to my ears, the 2M Black always felt restrained, in a way that declared "Dancing is a sin!" But when I played it on the Music Hall Stealth turntable, through the Analogue A3 phono preamplifier, it removed its black coat, tossed off its clerical collar, and started dancing like a drunk deacon. It played the blues like it was friends with Satan.

When I heard this, I was shocked. I blamed this unprecedented defrocking on witches.

A3 + Denon DL-103: Music Hall's Analogue A3 did such an exciting job amplifying Ortofon's 2M Black moving magnet that I wondered how it would perform with the naturally exuberant great-at-giddy-up Denon DL-103 moving coil. I mounted the low-output (0.3mV), high-impedance (40 ohms), $349 DL-103 moving coil on an LP Gear Headshell and attached it to Music Hall's Stealth. I was curious about this pairing because the A3's moving coil input has a fixed (100 ohm) impedance. And this could be a problem.

The high-impedance DL-103 famously sags and gets dull when it's loaded down at 100 ohms, and that is what I heard. When I played my beloved Decca Gold Label Andres Segovia, Guitar (DL 10054), I felt sad about the sound, but not surprised. I knew in advance that the DL-103 only starts to open up with at least 200 ohms and swings fully only at 300 to 400 ohms.

But it really sounds the most vivid and complete when driving EMIA's Cu 1:10H step-up transformer. I know some will think a $3375 SUT out of place in a review of a $1199 phono stage, auditioned with a $349 cartridge, but that presumes that both modestly priced products are unworthy, which is wrong. I've enjoyed Denon DL-103s in cost-no-object systems.

With the EMIA SUT driving the A3's moving magnet input, that Gold Label Segovia came beautifully and gracefully alive, glowing and sharply focused, with that luminous aura I cherish. I've been using this EMIA copper 1:10 for at least 10 years. (I have an ancient "drug through the Hudson" version.) The magic of this combo is the chief reason I remain loyal to my DL-103s.

A3 + Koetsu?The A3 was sounding so silky and tube effortless that I wondered how its moving coil input would handle my $8495 Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum, which thrives at 100 ohms. Playing the Koetsu on the Dr. Feickert Blackbird with a Thomas Schick arm was an interesting experiment that quickly answered the question, "Would the modestly priced Analogue A3 degrade the sound of expensive cartridges?"

Through the Analogue A3's moving coil input, the Koetsu sounded nice, with a good amount of quiet vividosity. It played okay: enjoyably, but not amazingly. It was not delivering $8495 worth of excitement.

Except! When I inserted the Koetsu's matching, $5000 SUT between it and the Analogue A3's MM input, the Milky Way appeared. Horses reared. Big drums and chesty sopranos stormed the air in my room.

The Koetsu entering the A3 via the Koetsu transformer then going directly into the A 21+ amplifier, which powered my "Gold Badge" Falcons, was a system I enjoyed without second thoughts.

Compared to the Kitsuné LCR-1 MK5: Overall, Music Hall's Analogue A3 phono stage did not equal the Tavish Design Adagio for silence, physicality, or full-spectrum harmonics. However, these deficiencies were subtle and usually swamped by the overall attractiveness of the A3's sound. The A3's weaknesses were most noticeable as a thinness in the lower octaves, especially while listening to solo piano—where, as usual, the artist's left hand told the story. And also on male vocals, where the tones of a singer's voice would be good but not completely fleshed out.

The A3 displayed low energy in the upper bass, but my solid state reference phono stage, the Kitsuné LCR-1 MK5 ($1498 to $2298), seems to over-energize that region.

Music Hall's Stealth turntable and A3 phono stage sounded most alive and smiling with Ortofon's 2M Black moving magnet mounted on that LP Gear headshell. So I thought I'd run the Stealth–2M Black pairing into the Kitsuné LCR-1 to see how it compared to the Analogue A3. Like the Adagio, the Kitsuné LCR-1 is a two-chassis design, its power supply housed in a separate box. The LCR-1 has no volume attenuator, so I was forced to use HoloAudio's Serene line-level preamp as a controller. In other words, I just replaced Music Hall's modestly sized Analogue A3 with three rack-sized boxes!

I played Jean Sibelius: Mélodies, Songs, Lieder with baritone Jorma Hynninen and Ralf Gothóni on piano (French Harmonia Mundi LP HMC 5142). The unbridled, close-miked dynamics on this 1984 recording make me sit upright and pay attention. These chest-opening song-poems, especially "Come Away, Death!" and "Song of the Cross-spider," are my favorite type of musical art, and on this recording, the piano and vocal sound is as clear and vivid and raw analog as I've heard on any recording. As I listened through the LCR-1, I thought the Ortofon 2M Black sounded damn near perfectly clear and superdetailed with enormous lower-octave energy. Seppo Siirala's guitar, on "When that I was and a little tiny boy," was as tangible and present-sounding as I could ever ask for.

With Music Hall's Analogue A3 going straight into the Parasound A 21+, this recording sounded less concrete but just as refined, natural, and stimulating as I could hope for—exceptionally fine-grained and fine-textured with good carry-the-tune momentum. This Sibelius recording was the A3's finest moment. The art and music parts were all there, and the quality of sound I experienced was probably what Harmonia Mundi's producers were aiming for.

Compared to the sometimes cool, hard-punching—dare I say masculine-sounding?—Kitsuné, the A3 presented itself in a more feminine manner. The performers sounded farther from their microphones. The A3's presentation was less dramatically dynamic and less physical sounding. But I think the A3 was playing closer to the truth.

Conclusion
There are a million phono cartridges and countless phono preamps to choose from. You could spend $50 or $50,000. But there is no sure way to know what any of them will sound like in your system. As I said in my preface, the best I can do is plant a few sounds inside your head, sounds that might help you imagine how Music Hall's Analogue A3 might sound in your system with your cartridge.

The more I auditioned Music Hall's tube phono stage, the more it reminded me of EAR's tubed Phono Classic. These two phono stages both sound world-class tube-beautiful, and they both have volume controls, which is rare on higher quality phono stages, but wonderful because it allows you to connect directly to a power amplifier. Directly connected to my amplifier, the A3 sounded clearer, more detailed, and more dynamic than it did with a line-level preamp in the system.

If your power amplifier has sufficient gain—more than about 25dB—plus switchable balanced and single-ended inputs (like my Parasound A 21+), you can set it up to use with both digital and analog sources. I connect the A3 to the A 21+'s RCA inputs and the dCS Bart¢k DAC to the Parasound's XLRs.

If I still had Genelec's active G Threes I reviewed in August, I could have connected the A3 directly to the speakers and made my system even simpler—and better.

Fine tube sonics and a quality Alps volume control make Musical Hall's Analogue A3 easy to recommend.