I demoed a 3a,and returned it the next day because of the coarse volume detents. It was either too loud or too quiet. The one I demoed had telefunken NOS tubes in it. It was quite a bit noisier than my adcom passive gfp-750. I didn't own a record player at the time. I preferred the gfp for both sonics, and it's remote. The NOS tubes were probably the source of the noise.
I currently own the ph-3 and I alternate it with a ref 1 preamp and my pass labs aleph P preamp. It has a beautiful 'euphonic sound' and gorgeous midrange. It's my favorite of the 3-4 phono stages I've heard. It has a lot more life than some excellent solid state phono stages I've heard. I think with vinyl you almost want to have tubes in your phono or preamp. It seems to take the edge off of the surface noise on some records.
I currently own the ph-3 and I alternate it with a ref 1 preamp and my pass labs aleph P preamp. It has a beautiful 'euphonic sound' and gorgeous midrange. It's my favorite of the 3-4 phono stages I've heard. It has a lot more life than some excellent solid state phono stages I've heard. I think with vinyl you almost want to have tubes in your phono or preamp. It seems to take the edge off of the surface noise on some records.