Analog sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn, & Castellon turntable & stand; VPI HW-40 Air Force One Premium turntables; SAT CF1-09, Graham Elite, and VPI Fatboy tonearms; Lyra Atlas, Atlas SL, Atlas SL mono, Etna, and Etna SL, Ortofon MC Century, Anna Diamond, A95, Miyajima Labs Infinity (mono) and Destiny (stereo) Grado Epoch (mono).
Digital sources: dCS Vivaldi One SACD player DAC; Lynx Hilo A/D-D/A converter, Roon Nucleus; Pure Vinyl and Vinyl Studio software.
Preamplification: darTZeel NHB-18S, Ypsilon MC-10L, MC-16L, Consolidated Audio SUTs step-up transformers; Ypsilon VPS-100, CH Precision P1 with X1 PSU, Boulder 508.
Power amplifiers: darTZeel NHB 468 monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Alexx.
Cables: Interconnect: TARA Labs Zero Evolution, Zero and Air Evolution, Analysis Plus Silver Apex, Stealth Sakra & Indra, Luminous Audio Technology Silver Reference, interconnect Speaker: AudioQuest Dragon, TARA Labs Omega Evolution SP. AC: AudioQuest Dragon, Dynamic Design Neutron SW16 Digital power cord.
Accessories: AudioQuest Niagara 7000 power conditioners; Oyaide AC wall box & receptacles; ASC Tube Traps; RPG BAD, Skyline & Abffusor panels, Stillpoints Aperture II Room panels, Synergistic Research UEF products (various), Symposium Ultra platform; HRS Signature SXR and Stillpoints ESS stands, Stillpoints and Finite Elemente Pagode amplifier stands; Audiodharma Cable Cooker; Furutech record demagnetizer; Furutech deStat; Loricraft PRC4 Deluxe, Audiodesksysteme Gläss Vinyl Cleaner Pro, and Kirmuss Audio KA-RC-1 record-cleaning machines.—Michael Fremer
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COMMENTS
... a subsonic filter?
Do the various EAT E-Glo hybrid phono preamps exhibit an "overexposed" sound quality with "far too much high-frequency energy" and "a grey sheen"?
Consider the Petite model that costs $1K less than the Stellar:
https://www.absolutesounds.com/pdf/main/press/HFN%20Feb%20EAT%20E-Glo%20Petite%20Reprint[1].pdf
At least it's not a few opamps like many are, though this board looks fairy well stuffed.
https://www.analogplanet.com/images/styles/600_wide/public/0419DM.JPG
Cheers George
It is not easy to exceed the performance of some of the best monolithic operational amplifiers when properly implemented in a circuit.
The now obsolete (shame on you Texas Instruments) TI / National Semiconductor LME49990 was truly excellent for many uses in audio circuits.
LME49990 datasheet:
https://upverter.com/datasheet/7cd4a4f0b32df3909631d7b5fda12936b94811b9.pdf
.....monolithic operational amplifiers when properly implemented in a circuit." quoted JRT
Chip op-amps? Thanks but no thanks.
First off, We have to know an op-amp is built up with MANY bipolar junction transistors with built in feedback loops all over.
So however immaculate measured data published only show the STATIC performance working on sine/square waves test signals in the lab. But when used in audio amps to handle music signals which are for ever fluctuating DYNAMIC complex multi harmonics. It will be another story!
The published static performance data do not show how the op-amp in question will operate with dynamic music complex harmonics at all !!!!!!!!
Logic will tell the huge number of bipolar transistor junctions & the feedback loops inside the op-amp chip the complex music harmonics have to pass through, only cause harmonic & phase distortion to the music complex harmonics, substantially compromising the music sound quality. This is physics.
My critical ears just can't tolerate the clinical sound of any op-amps. Period.
Listening is believing
Jack L
Canada
It's good to see such an extensive Measurements section for a phono component. I don't recall Stereophile ever publishing THIS many measurements before. In fact, I only recall the late Audio (USA) magazine publishing this many phono metrics in their reviews.
...... a phono component." quoted hollowman.
Measurement however "extensive" can never tell how it will sound to our ears. So let yr ears have the final say !!!!!
Jack L
This review generated hobby excitement for me.
I could see this or the Mu Fi Nu Vinyl being a good foundation for a 20 year system.
Capacitance switching for that MM input -- an extraordinary omission for "...a product that will stand or fall on its own merits, regardless of price", particularly when money is wasted on a useless feature like remote gain-switching...
Pass Labs XP-27 product marketing web page:
https://www.passlabs.com/preamplifier/xp-27
Product specifications:
https://www.passlabs.com/sites/default/files/Product_specs_17_27.pdf
Owner's manual:
https://www.passlabs.com/sites/default/files/xp-27_om_prelim.pdf
It still needs a good AD converter to get your FLAC files onto the server. I would suggest an RME ADI-2 Pro FS. It was on sale for $1499 in a few months prior to 2020, and you might still find it for that, but be sure that it is the newer FS variant. It is also a good DA converter and headphone preamplifier, so has other uses in the system.
RME ADI-2 Pro FS marketing web page on the new poorly done website:
https://www.rme-audio.de/adi-2-pro-fs.html
RME ADI-2 Pro FS marketing web page on the older and better, but now archived website:
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/en/products/adi_2-pro.php
User Manual, includes section with product specifications, and includes a section describing and showing advantages of digital volume control when properly implemented.
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/download/adi2profs_e.pdf
... short shrift in many modern preamps.
The venerable Apt Holman preamp offered adjustments for both load resistance and capacitance - plus a switchable subsonic/infrasonic filter.
https://www.kenrockwell.com/audio/apt/images/holman-preamplifier/D3S_5281-back-1200.jpg
...for an extraordinary, heartfelt review.
One thing I notice from most of the comments—thanks, Anton, for being the exception—-can’t we focus on what is right, rather than constantly pissing on good work? Celebrate what it is, rather than diminishing it by saying it should have been something else?
Have any of these folks ever agonized over a design as Darren did for a year, working to ensure that a brilliant prototype became an amazing piece in production??
I love audio, its designers, and the people who devote their energies, heart, and soul to it.
Armchair experts? Not so much.
... offend you. If, in your opinion, this magazine or its website should only contain positive comments, then it becomes no more than a cheerleading section or a form of advertising.
In my several decades long experience of designing and developing products, prototype units have always been submitted for evaluation by focus groups and/or field tests. Feedback - both positive and negative - is reviewed and changes are incorporated as necessary and where feasible.
Did PS Audio conduct any outside testing? It seems as though the design was deemed complete once it met Mr. Myers "one note" criteria. Who determined the feature set for this product? Had PS Audio solicited my input, I would have suggested eliminating the remote control and including adjustable resistive and capacitive loading for fixed-coil/high-output cartridges. While the remote control selection of MC cartridge loading might constitute a 'unique selling proposition', the load only needs to be set once for any given cartridge. The unit already has separate inputs for MC and "MM" cartridges. How much more would it have cost to include a pair of switches and a few extra resistors and capacitors to enable adjustable loading for the "MM" input?
There are always a number of outside evaluators of proposed/new products at PS. Beyond that, I shouldn’t comment further as I’m no longer with the company.
I’ve probably already shot my mouth off wayyy too much.:-)
For me and my Lyra Delos at 0.6mV, only need about 56-57dB to match my preamp input sensitivity. My Nova II is set at 56dB and anymore I could be over loading.
I don't understand the need for so much gain for MC carts....Starting at 60dB does me no good.
...... with a phono preamp that always presents the music in the correct light." quoted Michael Fremer.
Both JFET & MOSFET devices are nonlinear devices with transfer curves
kinked sharply, leaving the linear ohmic operation zone pretty narrow for linear music signal swings, even more nonlinear than bipolar junction transistors.
Like it or not, ONLY truly linear active device which exhibits linear transfer curves is triode vacuum tube. period.
That explains why critical ears, like yours truly's. can distinctly tell amps employing triodes only active devices sound so much more musical than solid state amps.
But please forget the measurement data which, IMO, bear little relevance, if any, to what our ears perceive.
Mind you, not all tubes are as linear. Pentodes & tetrodes are nonlinear like JFETs & MOSFETs, also with kinked transfer curves, but the ohmic linear tranfer zones there are much milder & wider than their solid states counterparts. So more musical friendly than sold state devices.
Yes, passive RIAA EQ is the better EQ topology than conventional active
RIAA EQ which employs some feedback loops across active stages.
Listening is believing
Jack L
Canada
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