Phono Preamp Reviews

If it weren't for streaming, I would have never engaged with a computer to interface with my Hi Fi. Download, Winn this AFLAC that...I was never gon' do it.

Now, this carn sarned complicated stuff hits me right in my 12 inch!

So, to use this preamp, I need a random cartridge, chosen in the hope that maybe it will work with my system, perhaps, and also get a different wiring set up for my tonearm...as you say: "The shield and ground of the phono cable must be isolated from the plus and minus conductors, which eliminates certain cables and tonearms from consideration. There's nothing a user can adjust to optimize the circuit for a certain cartridge—no adjustment of load resistance, in other words. You're almost entirely limited to moving-coil cartridges, and apparently, even among moving-coils, some combinations don't work at all. Got a cartridge you want to use? Plug it in, hold your breath, and see what happens."

That is so inconvenient, I don't know how us vinyl aficionados can resist!

Whole new layers of inconvenience, expense, and complexity.

Sign me up!

I would buy this if it were plug and play...can we beg a primer on how the Hell to get a system ready to install this crazy thing?

Parasound Halo JC3+ phono pre-amp ....... $2,995, Stereophile Class-A :-) ...........

The transimpedance amplifier provides extremely low load impedance at its input.

Phono cartridges have an optimal load impedance for flat response to high frequency. Jim Hagerman provides a good explanation at the following link.

http://www.hagtech.com/loading.html

Stereophile has provided an industry profile of Jim Hagerman at the following link.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/industry-profile-jim-hagerman-hagerman-audio-labs

...The cleanest industrial design chic yet!

As an alternative, one might try using a Bob's Devices Cinemag Sky to step up the voltage and provide impedance matching between a moving coil phonograph cartridge and a moving magnet phonograph preamplifier.

https://www.bobsdevices.com/product-page/sky-cinemag

Similar:
https://www.stereophile.com/content/bobs-devices-cinemag-1131-phono-transformer

Everyone can have an Opinion.

The above Summary Opinion needs qualifiers:

Best $3,800 Analog Money Spent for folks that can spend $50,000 a year on audio hobby purchases. ( about $4,000 per month considering Sales Tax )

Circuits like this demand an appropriate Transparent Audio Cable costing near $5,000 for the entry level priced one.

Well, dammit, this Circuit makes ALL phono Cartridges sound wonderful, even cheap ones statement reveals the reviewer's system deficiency, despite the extravagant costs of the gear.

Superb Phono Cartridge transducers have their own unique voice which is beautifully revealed thru well chosen Pre-Amps, is this review suggesting that Today's Pre-Amps with Phono are no dam good?

I'll suggest that it's the Vinyl being played is not so good. ( along with the Pre-Amps being offered )

Superb Vinyl Analog is super Pricy ( and a pain in the Schiit'r ).

Tony in Venice

This is all good natured ribbing, of course.

You know the difference between a cult and a religion?

The number of members.

As of this year, vinyl is a bigger 'cult' than CD.

Vinyl is a fun part of the audio hobby, why denigrate it? People enjoy vinyl at all price levels.

Do you troll auto enthusiast forums and admonish people that driving really fast costs millions of dollars so they and their street legal car cult should shut up and shut down their obsession?

Do you whine at wine forums that the finest wines cost tens of thousands of dollars per bottle, so they should quit with the cultish talk about finding great 50 dollar bottles?

Well, maybe you do, but you shouldn't!

;-D

Sit back, enjoy some nice copa and cheese, pop open a fine bottle of wine in your favored price range, and get off the vinyl whiner train.

Or, better yet, do us a big favor....go mewl on the digital review posts about the cult of digital and those 15,000 dollar CD players and 80,000 dollar DAC stacks.

Go tilt at the 50,000 dollar amps, while you are at it! Take down the entire hobby, man!

We all have our points of price ridiculosity. There are times I will agree with you, too! Sometimes, I read show reports that list prices and just shake my head. For fun, watch the show videos and pay extra attention when a manufacturer is asked the price of his piece of kit...there is always a pregnant and embarrassed pause, as if they are wondering if the interviewer will laugh, be outraged, or ask who he's kidding. If these guys were playing poker, we'd own them. They know it's silly, too.

Cheers, man.

Using the current-mode in phono amp means that all the cartridge current is sinked by the short circuit in amp's input leaving no current to run in the cable capacitance. As a result the filter that acts on the cartridge signal is now of LR type instead of the usual RCL type. So, what mostly limits the choise of cartridges is the corner frequency of this filter which must be high enough. It is calculated by the formula: f(-3dB) = R/L/(2π), where R,L = resistance and inductance of the cartridge coil. E.g. for Ortofon Quintet Black whose R and L are 5Ω and 6.2µH we get: f(-3dB) = 128kHz. By contrast, for Ortofon 2M Black which is MM cartridge and whose R and L are 1.2kΩ and 630mH we get: f(-3dB) = 303Hz!