Mitch Singerman EAR 834p mod

I am a fan of this phono stage, and have used one for a few years. IMO, it sounds more like what real live music sounds like than anything else remotely in this price range. It is smooth, detailed, stages well, and most importantly (for me) is that the music moves (prat) in a coherent (realistic) way. I had it modified by Mitch a couple of years ago.

The improvements wrought by the mods of course affect the MC section as well as the MM. The best way I would describe the post-mods sound is to imagine that with the stock unit you were listening to your system with a thin scrim thrown over your speakers. The mods remove the scrim. In other words, the basic character of the unit has not changed, but now there is substantially more clarity, with resulting better sound staging. Individual images may seem smaller at first, until you realize that it's because there is less fuzz around them (more clarity). The overall sound my also seem slightly brighter and less tubey (especially before break-in/yes, 100 hours is about right), but again it's because there is less grunge and fuzz around images. Dynamically, it is even more lively than before, but very natural. All worth the cost of the mods. Yes, Level 2 is definitely worth the money. And if your unit has the older style phono jack which are prone to breaking, get better ones installed.

Lloydc, with all due respect, what does your response have to do with the OP's question? For someone who already owns the 834P as the OP does, and likes the basic character of the unit, an additional $375 investment for mods that have received an awful lot of attention, and substantially improve an already very good unit is a no-brainer IMO. But regardless, I'll play: I think a realistic RESALE price for an 834P (non-deluxe) is probably around $900 + $375 or so for the mods. For that kind of money (not $3300), I can't think of anything that I would rather listen to. As to the EAR's sound, I don't know what you consider to be accurate or euphonious, but clearly we have very different notions of what those are

Frano, you are welcome. I had the Level 2 mods done; well worth the extra $125.

Lloydc, thanks for your comments re your experiences with the two phono stages. I know your comments were meant to be helpful, but I guess it's a pet peeve of mine that oftentimes a OP asks a question that relate only to a specific item and and then receives suggestions about some other item that is supposedly better.

Having said that, and going back to the EAR vs. The AR: I know the AR PH-3SE; a cousin owns it and I have listened to it in my system as well as his. It is a very good phono stage. As usual it comes down to system synergy and personal preference. I disagree that the AR is "vastly superior in every
way" to the EAR. Not in my system and not according to my priorities. I think that for me it comes down to the fact that the EAR is a pure tube design, and the AR is a hybrid. I like the AR very much, but I definitely hear the influence of the FET's in the signal path. While arguably somewhat more detailed than the EAR, to my ears it is also a little bleached sounding compared to the EAR. While some will say that the EAR is tubey or even mushy sounding, I hear more of acoustic music's natural tone colors through it; as opposed to everything having a drier, grayish color, something that is particularly objectionable to me. Also, and certainly not least in my system's case, the EAR has much more gain that the AR, which allows me to eliminate the line stage and use a high-quality passive pre for a significant improvement in the area of detail and purity, without the common criticisms of passives (the subject of a different discussion).

Regards.