Best Phono Stage within 2000 $

While there is not necessarily a "best", I would consider the following:

- Vacuumstate JLTI
- Pass XOno

I preferred both to the Sutherland Ph.D., EAR 834R and some much more
expensive stages. Some others that look interesting:

- ARC PH3 SE
- K&K Maxxed out Kit (=Art Audio Vinyl Reference)

Also, you could get a step-up for your Cary MM phono stage to use with a
MC cartridge.

I heard good things about the Whest PS30R but no chance to listen to one yet. There have been excellent reviews on some German forums comparing it closely to a Pass Xono which seems to fall in a similar direction sonically.

For the US$ used price the Xono is one of the best recommendation - for some reason the Xono is still more popular on German forums than here. And that is despite the new US$4200 vs. 5300 Euro !! pricetag.

Both, XOno and Whest would go in a very different direction sonically compared the Cary though. The XOno is much more detailed, quick, and neutral. Maybe not the richest tonal colors or texture. The XOno has the best low-end of any phono I heard to date.

With an X-1 pre I would not even think long about the right phono stage: Pass XOno. A friend is running one with his INT150 and it's a perfect combination.
He runs a Dynavector XX-2 cartridge into the Pass which works well too.

I heard the Rhea in a shootout with several other phonostage and neither of us was impressed - we pretty much unanimously felt it was very disappointing. It was slightly noisy too.

Some short comments:
- Sutherland Ph.D. (nice balance, good flow, quiet)
- McIntosh C1000 pre (excellent flow, not the best resolution)
- Canofer S (best overall balanced and very good soundstage resolution)
- Vacuumstate JLTI (finely detailed, very wide soundstage and excellent separation between instruments, lean)
- Rhea (slightly noisy, average soundstage resolution, forward upper midrange, loose bass)

Some more phonostages I have more experience with:
- Pass XOno (excellent resolution, best bass and extension, dynamic, slightly mechanical and not the most saturated tonal colors
- Wright WPP200C (good balance, average resolution)
- Trichord Dino (dry, good resolution)

Most of the above comparisons were done using the following combinations:
- Verdier, Da Vinci, ZYX Universe
- DPS 2, Schroeder No.2 Allaerts, Lyra Argo
- Scoutmaster, JMW9 Plus, Dynavector XX-2

Of course mostly my personal impression and YMMV.

Re: Feickert Adjust+

...Before I got Adjust+, I used a test record for setting up the azimuth, by playing an azimuth dedicated tract with my phono preamp in mono, and rotating the headshell until the signal from the L and R channels get canceled.

This has been discussed several times in the forums (and by Michael Fremer and others). Balancing the signal for L+R channel (which is what cancellation implies) is the wrong way to adjust azimuth. Azimuth depend only very weakly on the channel balance and other factors (cartridge, phonostage gain) influence channel imbalances more. The right way is to mimimize the crosstalk between channels.

The problem with this method is that, depending on the cartridge design, it's possible to have both L and R channels produce the same DB, but each channel could be out of phase in reference to the other. This condition produces undefined lower notes, muddy midrange and splashy highs. In other words, the sound is out of focus. With Adjust+, the phase angle of the L and R channels are set to match, even if, due to particular cartridge design, there is one channel producing +-DBs than the other channel. I went back and forth with both methods, and the sound with the Adjust+ is absolutely in focus. One I got acquainted with Adjust+, there is no going back.

Again to correct: Adjust+ does NOT match the phase angle of the L and R channels. Instead Adjust+ measures the phase of the crosstalk signal with respect to main signal and optimizes/matches both for the left and right channel. This is an important destinction (crosstalk vs. main signals) that is often misunderstood. It is of course no surprise that Adjust+ does much better than the wrong "channel balancing method".

Otherwise I completely agree - Feickert's Adjust+ is an excellent and innovative solution to the Azimuth problem.

Rene
Ph.D. Physics