phono section

I bought my son a 640P for use with his first analog setup, to go with a
vintage Technics and AT cart. I spent several days listening to it in my
system. Frankly, I was surprised how good it sounded CONSIDERING IT'S
COST. It was clearly in the ss camp, and while I did not find it to be thin
sounding, it was not very dimensional and with fairly flat images. It's
biggest failings were, IMO, a lack dynamic verve (the music always
sounded a little polite), and the soundstaging, while fairly stable, was
compressed with images that were too small compared to other phono
sections that I am familiar with. I owned the NAD 1020 (?) phono section
many years ago. It was the same phono section that is in the 3020, in it's
own box without a line stage. While I agree with Viridian's comments about
how to make the choice, IMO, the Cambridge, overall, sounds closer to
natural than the NAD.

Having said all that, if it is true that the 640 is "an accurate, full range,
well made great sounding phono preamp by any standard", where
can one go from there? It's good for the money, but not nearly as good as
the EAR 834P, Jolida 9 to name two, which are themselves far from the
best. Good luck.

"accurate": to me, that means its just about perfect. Accurate, is
just that; pretty much no where to go.
"full range": I would agree; pretty much.
"well made": agreed
"great sounding": Well, then what is an Aesthetix, or Steelhead
or....? Maybe "fantastic"? Is fantastic better than great?

Hey Wolf, just having some semantics fun here. I don't mean to be a
hardass nor beat up on the Cambridge at your expense; I think it's a good
sounding piece and for the money pretty amazing. God knows, my gear is
far from the best that I have heard. I can be a stickler for perspective; just
ask my wife, she puts up with me.