Pass Labs Xono vs. Aesthetix Rhea


Has anyone had both of these phono stages in their system?.
I may be adding a TT soon and these were recomended to me.
What are the strengths and weakness of these two phono preamps.

Thanks
jonniem

Showing 1 response by barrysandy

On the plus side, the Xono does have great build quality, very low noise, lots of gain (good for a low output mc) and is very flexible in terms of cartridge loading so you'll get the ideal set-up with it. If you're just getting into vinyl, I can't imagine why you'd want multiple phono inputs or a remote with a phono stage.

The Xono absolutely does not sound thin and analytic. It is annoyingly "gray" to me but you might not notice that if you're used to the sound of CDs and have never heard a lot of good vinyl playback. Tonal colors and immediacy are lacking due to all the caps in the signal path. It's still a really good piece and a great value used.

Overall the choice depends on the rest of your system and most especially the output of your cartridge.