Moon neo 310lp combined AT art 9


Hi,

Currently using Moon 350p with internal phonocard.
Source is thorens td2001, at art9 mc. Great.
But will an external preamp like moon neo 310lp give me more to enjoy? Caught my interest this amp.
What will be significant differences?
Any experience regarding these components are welcome!
andrex99

Showing 3 responses by tablejockey

No experience with your gear, except the ART 9. Fantastic value cart(for the 1k price point) with my tubed phono amp.

The Simaudio gears appears to be quality SS gear. Likely, the onboard phono stage delivers a good amount of their stand lone unit. Advantage being one less box and cables.

With that in mind, the value you put on the possibly minor/subtle improvement becomes the issue. Note I prefaced minor/subtle  with possibly. Someone may chime in with experience with similar gear and actual results.

I found going from a SS phono to tubed the game changer. If you read reviews of high dollar SS units, its often mentioned how it sounds tubed. You put up with a little noise for "real" over a decent SS unit. In my case, I need to crank the volume up to 12:00 o'clock to hear hiss, and I just don't do that



andrex99-
"Good" or realistic sonics is subjective. I personally hear tube gear as more convincing. Vocal and acoustic instruments in particular always seem to win in a side to side comparison.

Comparing SS to tube on technical paper specs, SS perhaps may appear superior in some areas. But in the end, what comes out of your speakers matters the most. That said, the Allnic IMO will be more realistic sounding compared to a $ 1700 US. SS unit. NOT  an apples to apples comparison, just addressing your question.

I suggested the following listing in another thread, but you need XLR out, which this doesn't offer. But if you can up the budget and use RCA's, I'd offer the guy 1900-2000, and you'll have a unit better sounding than any $1700 SS piece. A used Allnic goes for a bit more, and this unit may be on the same/close to on a performance level .
https://www.audiogon.com/listings/phono-zesto-audio-andros-ps1-tube-phono-preamplifier-andros-phonos...




andrex99-
I didn't realize that link is probably useless to you since you're in Holland. 
Nevermind.

Otherwise, A friend has one of these, perhaps there's a distributor somewhere in Europe. Nice sounding unit,especially for the price. US price in your budget .

http://www.morningstaraudio.com/product/eastern-electric-minimax-phonostage-preamplifier/