mprince
Super Member
Based on reading a lot of positive stuff on AK, I ordered a SOTA Pyxi phono pre and it arrived earlier this week. Wanted to share some initial impressions, not sure how far I will go with a "review" but we'll see (I don't do audio terms well). Sorry in advance for a long post...
Analog Chain: SOTA Star Sapphire, Audiomods Series 5 arm, Audio Technica OC9XML/Ortofon Cadenza Blue. System feeds a ZeroZone (Chinese copy of a Cary SLP-90) tube preamp. Amp is a heavily reworked Adcom GFA-545, and speakers are Ohm Walsh 2.2000.
Just a bit more background: In 2016/2017 I went through quite a transitory period in both phono and line-level preamps. Had a Luminous Audio passive preamp fed by a Vista Audio phono pre. I then decided to try MC headamps and got a Rothwell Headspace and a SOTA head amp. Had a ton of noise issues and got a Rothwell Simplex MM. Eventually landed on an Emotiva PT-100 pre as I needed a new DAC and frankly was tired of chasing problems. Got a Rothwell MCL SUT and fed the Emotiva MM stage with that, until earlier this year. Decided I wanted a better DAC, sold the Emotiva and got a tube pre-amp from China (no phono stage). So, I picked up another Rothwell Simplex to go with the SUT. What I found is that this had too much combined gain to work well with my Ortofon Cadenza (0.5mv) cartridge, so I subbed in my backup cartridge (AT OC9XML, 0.4mv output). This is about a $1K (retail) phono stage between the SUT and MM stage. Then I read about the SOTA Pyxi.
Over the past few years, I find myself listening to digital more than analog, mostly for the quick search/cue up, and with Hi-Res stuff it still sounds good (I mostly listen in my office while I work). In anticipation of ordering the Pyxi, I made more of an effort to listen to my records. Have spent the better part of the last few weeks just playing a wide variety of music. The Rothwell combo sounds great, although I've been a bit concerned about too much gain (42dB from phono stage, 26dB from SUT for 68dB total), and have been on the lookout for a Rothwell MCX, which would lower gain by about 6dB. The MCL worked well with the Emotiva, as it was a fairly low-gain (38dB?) MM stage.
In any case, the Pyxi arrived yesterday and I promptly set the dip switches (130 ohm loading, lowest capacitive load) and got it set up. Put on the first record (Pearl Jam Rearviewmirror, which I just bought) and things sounded great. Second up was a more familiar record, The Cars s/t debut. This is where I started to notice differences as I just played it on the old setup a few days ago. Where the Rothwell combo has a lot of texture/body (I told you I suck at audio terms) with very full bass, the Pyxi had a much more forward presentation, with what I would call a lot of layering of different parts of the music. What I mean is I heard clear separation between instruments and vocals as well. To get a feel for female vocals, I played a MOFI release of Carole King "Tapestry" - more of the same, and the vocals took center stage.
So a much different presentation, although I am not ready to say better. That will take several weeks of listening to a bunch of different music. Very noticeable as I feel like my ears have adapted to the more laid back/darker presentation of the Rothwell, still getting used to the liveliness/clarity of the SOTA stage. But very impressed so far. Not sure if the additional gain of the Rothwell combo (68dB vs. 65dB) plays any part in the differences I am hearing, at some point I will mount up the Cadenza and see if that plays nice with the SOTA (I expect it will).
Construction wise this is a solid chunk of engineering. Feels very well put together, and the instructions and setup were very straightforward. No pictures of my install as this is a set and forget item for me, it is not even visible in my rack as I like to keep short cable paths and as a result this is tucked back behind the preamp. I plan to leave it powered on all the time, although I guess I could reach back there and press the on/off button if I had to.
So that's it for now. Time will tell if this stays in my system, but so far I can say that if you are looking for a phono stage in this price range, I can recommend this for sure for LOMC use (I don't have any MM/MI/HOMC to test). An impressive piece of work by @wyn palmer , Bill Carlin and the folks at SOTA.
Analog Chain: SOTA Star Sapphire, Audiomods Series 5 arm, Audio Technica OC9XML/Ortofon Cadenza Blue. System feeds a ZeroZone (Chinese copy of a Cary SLP-90) tube preamp. Amp is a heavily reworked Adcom GFA-545, and speakers are Ohm Walsh 2.2000.
Just a bit more background: In 2016/2017 I went through quite a transitory period in both phono and line-level preamps. Had a Luminous Audio passive preamp fed by a Vista Audio phono pre. I then decided to try MC headamps and got a Rothwell Headspace and a SOTA head amp. Had a ton of noise issues and got a Rothwell Simplex MM. Eventually landed on an Emotiva PT-100 pre as I needed a new DAC and frankly was tired of chasing problems. Got a Rothwell MCL SUT and fed the Emotiva MM stage with that, until earlier this year. Decided I wanted a better DAC, sold the Emotiva and got a tube pre-amp from China (no phono stage). So, I picked up another Rothwell Simplex to go with the SUT. What I found is that this had too much combined gain to work well with my Ortofon Cadenza (0.5mv) cartridge, so I subbed in my backup cartridge (AT OC9XML, 0.4mv output). This is about a $1K (retail) phono stage between the SUT and MM stage. Then I read about the SOTA Pyxi.
Over the past few years, I find myself listening to digital more than analog, mostly for the quick search/cue up, and with Hi-Res stuff it still sounds good (I mostly listen in my office while I work). In anticipation of ordering the Pyxi, I made more of an effort to listen to my records. Have spent the better part of the last few weeks just playing a wide variety of music. The Rothwell combo sounds great, although I've been a bit concerned about too much gain (42dB from phono stage, 26dB from SUT for 68dB total), and have been on the lookout for a Rothwell MCX, which would lower gain by about 6dB. The MCL worked well with the Emotiva, as it was a fairly low-gain (38dB?) MM stage.
In any case, the Pyxi arrived yesterday and I promptly set the dip switches (130 ohm loading, lowest capacitive load) and got it set up. Put on the first record (Pearl Jam Rearviewmirror, which I just bought) and things sounded great. Second up was a more familiar record, The Cars s/t debut. This is where I started to notice differences as I just played it on the old setup a few days ago. Where the Rothwell combo has a lot of texture/body (I told you I suck at audio terms) with very full bass, the Pyxi had a much more forward presentation, with what I would call a lot of layering of different parts of the music. What I mean is I heard clear separation between instruments and vocals as well. To get a feel for female vocals, I played a MOFI release of Carole King "Tapestry" - more of the same, and the vocals took center stage.
So a much different presentation, although I am not ready to say better. That will take several weeks of listening to a bunch of different music. Very noticeable as I feel like my ears have adapted to the more laid back/darker presentation of the Rothwell, still getting used to the liveliness/clarity of the SOTA stage. But very impressed so far. Not sure if the additional gain of the Rothwell combo (68dB vs. 65dB) plays any part in the differences I am hearing, at some point I will mount up the Cadenza and see if that plays nice with the SOTA (I expect it will).
Construction wise this is a solid chunk of engineering. Feels very well put together, and the instructions and setup were very straightforward. No pictures of my install as this is a set and forget item for me, it is not even visible in my rack as I like to keep short cable paths and as a result this is tucked back behind the preamp. I plan to leave it powered on all the time, although I guess I could reach back there and press the on/off button if I had to.
So that's it for now. Time will tell if this stays in my system, but so far I can say that if you are looking for a phono stage in this price range, I can recommend this for sure for LOMC use (I don't have any MM/MI/HOMC to test). An impressive piece of work by @wyn palmer , Bill Carlin and the folks at SOTA.
