sqlsavior
Lunatic Member
Although I haven't heard most popular phono preamps, of the half-dozen or so that I went through trying to beat a Hafler DH-110 (phono stage only - through the tape outputs), none could.
The most expensive of the competitors was a Sutherland Ph3D, at $1000 retail and well regarded. It came closest to the tonal balance of the Hafler's phono stage, but lost out on dynamics. It just seemed relatively flat and lifeless in comparison.
The Jolida JD-9 was definitely interesting, lively and pleasant, but seemed somewhat colored in comparison, and dropped from contention due to intermittent noise issues in my sample. My NAD 3020's phono section sounded very similar to the Hafler's in tonal character, just slightly veiled in comparison.
A Yaqin MB-22B provided astonishing amounts of (whaddya know?) bass SLAM!, but hashed-up the highs as well, to my ears, although my friend loves it in his home theatre setup.
An Apt-Holman may well have beaten the Hafler, but its phono section failed, and I didn't like the sound of the repair with different parts, so never got a chance to go back and compare just the phono stages. And Apt-Holmans are harder to come by and apt(!) to need repair...
I'll go out on a limb now (!) and pronounce the Hafler DH-110 phono stage a "Reference Component" - not in the sense of "best in my acquaintance", but in the sense of a $150 experiment to see if your phono stage can be significantly improved for less than $1000...
I'll go further out on a limb and say that a decent SUT (step-up transformer) will beat out most MC stages in this price range, and may also have resulted in some unfairness in the above comparisons due to un-tried MM combinations.
All comparisons were with a Denon DL-103 moving coil cartridge, with MM comparisons using a Denon AU-300 (~$250) SUT.
Has anyone else thoroughly vetted another cheap reference candidate? I'm talking budget phono preamps here...
The most expensive of the competitors was a Sutherland Ph3D, at $1000 retail and well regarded. It came closest to the tonal balance of the Hafler's phono stage, but lost out on dynamics. It just seemed relatively flat and lifeless in comparison.
The Jolida JD-9 was definitely interesting, lively and pleasant, but seemed somewhat colored in comparison, and dropped from contention due to intermittent noise issues in my sample. My NAD 3020's phono section sounded very similar to the Hafler's in tonal character, just slightly veiled in comparison.
A Yaqin MB-22B provided astonishing amounts of (whaddya know?) bass SLAM!, but hashed-up the highs as well, to my ears, although my friend loves it in his home theatre setup.
An Apt-Holman may well have beaten the Hafler, but its phono section failed, and I didn't like the sound of the repair with different parts, so never got a chance to go back and compare just the phono stages. And Apt-Holmans are harder to come by and apt(!) to need repair...
I'll go out on a limb now (!) and pronounce the Hafler DH-110 phono stage a "Reference Component" - not in the sense of "best in my acquaintance", but in the sense of a $150 experiment to see if your phono stage can be significantly improved for less than $1000...
I'll go further out on a limb and say that a decent SUT (step-up transformer) will beat out most MC stages in this price range, and may also have resulted in some unfairness in the above comparisons due to un-tried MM combinations.
All comparisons were with a Denon DL-103 moving coil cartridge, with MM comparisons using a Denon AU-300 (~$250) SUT.
Has anyone else thoroughly vetted another cheap reference candidate? I'm talking budget phono preamps here...
