Phono Stage with Two Line-outs


I recently purchased a Wyred 4 Sound STP-SE, which is a very nice preamp. I did, however, neglect to notice that it does not have a line-out for recording. I am currently running my turntable through a full-function preamp w/phono, and hooking one tape-out to the W4S and the other to a Tascam CD recorder.

Are there any phono stages in the ~$1000 or less ballpark, new or used, that have two simultaneously active outputs? Are there any other remedies to my situation that I am overlooking?   
minkwelder

Showing 7 responses by almarg

I have no knowledge of its sonics, but the Heed Quasar, at $1200 new, appears to meet all of your requirements, as well as providing both LOMC and MM compatibility.

Good luck.  Regards,
-- Al

P.S:  I see that the 775 mv output is spec’d as having a very low 22 ohm output impedance.  Which suggests that use of a splitter at that output, and using that output to drive both the recorder and the preamp, would stand an excellent chance of providing fine results, if the 39 dB gain of the other output proves to be inadequate for the recorder.

My belief has long been that the bad rap splitters and y-adapters often get is in most cases not due to the splitters or y-adapters themselves, but is most often the result of the component supplying the signal being unable to drive both destination components and/or both sets of cables with good results, and perhaps in some cases the result of ground loop issues involving the three interconnected components.

Regards,
-- Al
The 50 dB figure presumably applies to the 775 mv output, which means that the gain to the 220 mv output would be 39 dB.  That may be reasonable for use with a 2 mv cartridge, depending on the sensitivity and noise performance of the Tascam recorder.  (I suspect you would want to use the 775 mv output for the main signal path, given the relatively low 6 dB gain of your preamp, unless your power amp is particularly sensitive).

What specific model is the Tascam recorder?

Regards,
-- Al 
I found the manual for the recorder here.  As you can see on page 23, the unbalanced analog input is spec’d based on a nominal input level of -10 dbV, which is about 316 mv, that in turn allowing 16 db of headroom relative to the 2 volt clipping level of that input.

The 39 db gain of the Quasar’s low level output will boost the 1.6 mv nominal output of your cartridge (under the standard test conditions) to 143 mv.  Particularly loud transients on some recordings may of course exceed the standard test conditions significantly.

143 mv is about 7 db less than the 316 mv the recorder is nominally spec’d to work with.  The manual for the recorder indicates that when the input level control is at the 2 o’clock position the signal level is neither boosted nor cut, so I would expect that you could raise the position of the control enough to provide 7 db of additional gain.  I have no way of being certain, though, as to whether the recorder’s noise performance would still be good at that higher setting, although 7 db of additional gain doesn’t seem like a great deal.

So I think that there is a reasonably good chance that approach would work out.  But if it doesn’t, using a splitter on the Quasar's high level output, such as this one, should work well in this particular case.

As I said initially, though, I have no knowledge of the Quasar’s sonics.    

Good luck, however you decide to proceed.  Regards,
-- Al

Linn Linto has 2 line outs.  And I think it sounds very good too. 
It would not be suitable, though, for use with a high output cartridge such as the OP's DL-160, as its gain, input impedance, and input capacitance are all only suitable for use with LOMCs.  Also, often (and probably more often than not) components providing two sets of line-level output jacks drive both sets of jacks from the same output stage, and simply jumper the two sets of jacks together inside the rear panel.  Which would be little different than using a pair of the splitters I linked to above on a single pair of output jacks.

Regards,
-- Al
 
Interesting suggestion by LP2CD, which does indeed look promising.  The one question I would have, which would not be a show-stopper regardless of the answer, is if the XLR and RCA outputs are driven from separate output stages.  That is not stated anywhere in the manual or at the website, and in many cases components providing both kinds of outputs simply wire the signal pin on the RCA connector directly to one of the two signal pins on the XLR connector.

That wouldn’t be a major issue in this case, assuming the unit’s unspecified output impedance is not unusually high, but it would be nice to know if the two sets of connectors are separately driven.  If not, the consequence would be that the balanced connection would be slightly unbalanced, as a result of the differing loads on its two signals.  Which in turn would to some degree reduce the noise rejection and perhaps other advantages the balanced connection would otherwise be able to provide.  That would be especially true if the balanced connection were used for the main signal path and the RCA connection for the recorder, given the recorder’s low 10K input impedance (the W4S preamp has a 60K input impedance).

But regardless of that answer, as I said the MX-VYNL looks like a very promising candidate.

Regards,
--Al
 
Great!  Glad it worked out, and thanks for letting us know.

Best regards,
-- Al