I agree with the others that your problem probably lies elsewhere. I have used the phono stage in my previous CAT preamp, a Michael Yee (designer of the Musical Surroundings Phenomena) Audio solid-state phono stage, an Aesthetix Rhea (very important to use low-noise tubes since they use tubes for all of the gain), and my current Manley Steelhead. Only when using noisy tubes have they been a problem. In fact, the surface noise on many LP's completely overwhelms any phono stage noise. I use a Lyra Titan i cartridge with 0.45mV output.
Do they make a quiet great sounding phono pre amp??
Hi, I have purchased and listened to 3 phono preamps which are: A musical surroundings phonomena, musical surroundings Nova II, and a Manley labs Chinook. The Manely labs Chinook is by far bettter sounding then the first two (double the cost too). But, All three have given me nothing but trouble (noise,noise,noise even terrible clipped signals!), and 2 of them basically failed on me. So before I go DIGITAL, can someone please tell me who makes a phono preamp in the $2,000-$3,000 range (tube or solid state) that I can rely on, and sounds as good or better than the Chinook?? Thanks.
Matt M
Matt M