Trying the Yaqin MS-23b tube pre amp stage for turntable

[ShoemakerT]

My phone pre went on my vintage Yamaha CA610 integrated amp so I decided to treat myself to a new phono stage. My system includes the Yamaha CA610 (70's), Systemdek IIX turntable (90's) loading with the stock arm and Denon DL110 High Output MC cartridge with diamond stylus. I appreciate tubes often on my tuner, which is a Dyna FM3 (60's). My main A speakers are a perfect vintage set of Scandyna A25s from Denmark (60's)
I opted for the Yaqin because I don't like spending a fortune on audio gear as you might be able to tell from my rather modest system. (I paid well under $1000 for everything). Secondly, the Yaqin was the same price as the SS alternative, Cambridge 640p, which also has stellar reviews. And man, as a guitarist, I just love tubes.

First spin was London Grammar - If You Wait. At first, all I could hear was the sound of my Yammy before the phono pre went down. I thought great, I've gotten my money's worth. Towards the last song of the record, I noticed the sound quality increase to the same caliber of my FM3 tube radio which is super tubey and amazing. A few hours have gone by and flipped the record back over, upon another listen after the tubes have fully been taken up, it sounds absolutely fantastic. Pairing separate tube gear to the Yamaha sounds great because the Yamaha is so transparent, all I can hear is stellar tube power, and nothing's over the top. Amazing upgrade for the price. I have no need to upgrade my $80 Yamaha (even though one channel is a tad quieter, I just rebalance it.)

Do you usually find tubes take longer than a few hours to fully open up ? Should I see even more improvement in the days and weeks ahead? Cheers

Tyler

 

[phantomrebel]

I've owned that same phone stage. The first version I received had a hum but the seller (a Chinese guy based in Canada) replaced it with the updated version that was trouble free (I later gave it to my son). While I owned it, I found great benefit in rolling out the stock tubes, even though they got better with age. It was a fun piece to experiment around with Sovteks, and vintage Mullards and Telefunkens as it was quite revealing.

 

[dmsheehan]

Good phono stage. Amazing phono stage if you get it modified to the LesBox version. Google Les Box and I believe you should be able to find the pdf file that has a step by step instruction set. There is also a FB group dedicated to Yaqin tube amps. Get rid of the stock tubes and put some Svetlana Winged =C= 12ax7 tubes in it. Not the re-issues, but the ones that are from the original factory. The guys in the FB group are great and will offer all sorts of advice on the MS23b phono stage.

Tubes take a little while to burn in if they are purchased brand new. Do some tube rolling. There are lots of great tubes out there and they all color the sound differently. You have to find the sound that you like, but be careful as they can get very expensive and there are a lot of fakes out there.

 

[mjw21a]

Yes, I had one as my first phono stage. It's definitely better than the Cambridge Audio phono stages. I "upgraded" to one and ended up going back to the Yaqin. It's also stronger than the Little Bear T10 Pro v2.6 in a few area's, weaker in others. It wasn't until I moved to a Douk EAR 834P copy that I could truly better it.