Jasmine vs Musical Surroundings Nova Phono Pre-Amp


I wanting to purchase a phono Pre-Amp for $1,000 or less. Right now I am considering either the Jasmine Phono Pre-Amp or the Musical Surroundings Nova Phono Pre-Amp. Has anyone done a comparison of these two phono stages and can provide a recommendation which would be the better phono stage?

Would anyone have recommendation on a phono stage for $1,000 or less (other than the two mentioned above)?

Please note I have Well Tempered Turntable and Denon 103R cartridge.

Thanks for you help.
cbman

Showing 1 response by br3098

I think that the Nova Series of phono stages are truly wonderful for their price point, like all Michael Yee designed audio products. The trick is to set them up properly for your cartridge.

Speaking of which, you will probably resent me saying this but IMO you will never wring the best performance out of either your DL-103 or Well Tempered tonearm when used together - this is simply not a good match. The DL-103 family is an extremely low-compliance cartridge that was designed for heavy, rigid, high mass tonearm. Simply weighting the headshell is not enough - that will not significantly change the tonearm resonance.

I speak from experience here, but YMMV. Good luck.