borbely audio 420 phono stage


At long last the Borbely Audio 420 phono stage is assembled and debugged - it isnt detailed on the Borbely Audio website but basically it is an upgraded version of the 419 basic phono stage with some of the ideas taken from the top of the range 319 BA phono stage. This version has the caddock upgrade.

It comes with onboard regulators and a seperate basic psu. It would be interesting to compare that with never connected or super reg style PSU but I will leave that until I upgrade to the 319 phono.

To hand I had a TEAD MG+ (my brothers) for comparison. I have also used a Brinkmann fein, groove and WNA unit in my system.

Its only been on 12 hours but the sound is frankly superb. I can identify no apparent weakness and it wiped the floor with the TEAD MG+. The sound is extremely coherent and detailed but without being analytical. Total cost to me was around £750.

I will post more impressions over the next few days. Rob and Tenson are coming at the w/e to try out the modded behringer and also a WAD phono and preamp for comparison. Should be interesting!

Any other phonos welcome...
brizonbiovizier
Interesting. Look forward to more detailed impressions. What are the specs for this unit?
I imagine it is somewhere between the 320 and 419 on the BA web page in terms of specs. It is exceptionally quiet. So far I cant find any fault with it - a first for any phono stage for me!