best phono stage?

[VQLT]

what vintage amp/ receiver has the best (or one of the best)phono stages?

[Brian]

A Marantz Consolette, McIntosh C8, ARC SP-3a1 would be my starting points for tubes. Integrated - Fisher X-1000

Mattes SP100, McIntosh C28, Quad 44, Philips 572, CM Labs (but can not remember model # offhand) for ss. Integrated amps - Mattes SP200, McIntosh MA6100.

Unless you get into dedicated phono preamps.

[Johncan]

Superphon Revelation
Superphon Revelation II

The Superphon's are SS preamps

Advent 300 - SS integrated amp


John

[bully]

Kenwood's Basic C-2 & C-1 have excellent phono pre-preamps. Yamahas have great phono sections.
The Pioneer SX-1250, if you don't require an MC-capable phono section, is superb.

[DanTana]

I understand that from several sources here, the Kenwood KA-9100 has one of the best phono sections, bar none, of any amp. I think EchoWars can elaborate more on this issue.

[GordonW]

Most of the Harman-Kardon receivers of the 70s and early 80s have exemplary phono stages. Where many manufacturers use electrolytic, ceramic or tantulum caps, most of these HK receivers are ALL film caps in the signal path. And it helps- noticably so.

Otherwise, the HK Citation 1 has a great phono preamp.

But, if I wanted the ultimate phono preamp outside of a dedicated phono preamp box (and the answer in that case would be the Musical Surroundings Phonomena with the battery power pack, bar none, IMHO), I'd be looking for an Audio Research SP6, SP8 or SP10. Incredible phono preamp performance, quite possibly the quietest (free from hiss and other noise) tube preamps... at least the best I've ever encountered.

Regards,
Gordon.

[DanTana]

I've actually been thinking about using one of these RIAA adapters to standard RCA so I can use my two phono inputs for other devices.

http://www.classicaudio.com/service.html

[mhardy6647]

Jim Hagerman has some very well-regarded kit and semi-kit DIY phonostages. His little ss "Bugle" phono-preamp was rave reviewed in Audioxpress magazine a while back.

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

His vacuum tube phono preamps are also supposed to be very nice, but too pricey for me.

The other nice DIY choice, of course, is Doc Bottlehead's Seduction. This is what I am using, and I like it quite a bit.

http://www.bottlehead.com/et/adobespc/Seduction/seduction.htm

[mhardy6647]

My previous post was a little jumbled. The photo in the post above is the little Bugle.

Here's a picture of the Bottlehead Seduction...

[mhardy6647]

... I'm curious about why someone would want to use a reverse-RIAA adaptor to add line-level inputs? All the extra gain of the phonostage means more noise, and now you have two passive EQ circuits mucking with the line-level signal (or maybe your phonostage has active EQ, but, still, a bunch of extra parts in the chain that you don't need).

A cheaper and almost certainly sonically superior solution is to buy a little passive switchbox from RadioShack (or elsewhere). I use one of these as a front end source selector for my little Pete Millet hybrid tube/ss preamp, and it works great. Got it on sale for about $20 (photo from the R/S website). Nothing in the signal path but some wires (no resistors or caps) :-)

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=15-1978