Muffsy Phono Preamp Kit?

[chris lehn]

Allright, I've been trying to make a decision about what would get me the most bang for the buck here. I have these three in the running.

Schiit Mani - Out of stock for right now

Emotiva XPS-1 - Off the sale price now, I would have to pay full retail

Muffsy Phono Preamp kit - I would have to build this myself, I would go with the higher end OPA2134PA.

So who here has built the Muffsy kit? How do you like it? Is it worth it?

It would actually cost me more to order and build the Muffsy kit plus the cost of ordering a power supply and case, My solder gun probably would be too powerful for this as well so I would have to add in the cost of a new Solder Iron.

Am I better off waiting for the Mani to become available again or just be done with it and order the XPS-1?

Thanks for your responses.

Chris

 

[mhardy6647]

https://hagerman-audio-labs.myshopify.com/collections/phono-preamps/products/bugle2

 

[chris lehn]

So is this a variant of the "Another Super High End Phono Stage! No expense spared..." thread like the Muffsy appears to be?
I also wonder about the build instructions, I've seen the online instructions for the Muffsy and they are very detailed, if the instructions for the Bugle2 are the .pdf from their web page I think I will be unable to finish the kit. I need a "Build this Phono Pre for Dummies".

 

[mkane]

ASHEPS can be put together by anyone. If I can, you can and it's fantastic

 

[jewing]

This post may be a little late but, in case this is still relevant, I have built the Muffsy phono with the opa2134 recently. I like it quite a bit, picked up another one to modify and see if I can like it even more. I don't have a great depth of experience with various phonos, so I couldn't tell you if it is better than any of those others or how well it might fit in your system. If you want to build something it is rather easy to put together, the instructions are very easy to follow (pay attention to the screw terminal orientation though). The PSU is just as easy if you are looking at that too. The flexibility it has built in it is a very nice feature. It was definitely worth it (since I had no phono once I got my Dual).

 

[scuba]

So is this a variant of the "Another Super High End Phono Stage! No expense spared..." thread like the Muffsy appears to be?
I also wonder about the build instructions, I've seen the online instructions for the Muffsy and they are very detailed, if the instructions for the Bugle2 are the .pdf from their web page I think I will be unable to finish the kit. I need a "Build this Phono Pre for Dummies".

The first two kits I ever built were the Hagerman cornet 3 and the piccolo 2. Doesn't get any easier than that and the phono stage is dead quiet.

 

[bluemooze]

...I have these three in the running.

Schiit Mani...

What about the U-Turn Pluto? Did you read the Fremer poll results?