inna- I don’t know how helpful this will be since I have the H3000, not the H1201. My unit is wonderful in my system, but part of that is likely the synergy with the rest of my system. It took about 150 hours to really burn-in, and changing rectifiers on the H3000 makes a significant difference. (I looked up the H1201 and it appears to have a solid state power supply). I do know several other people using Allnic phono stages, either the H3000 or the DHT (which is one of the very high priced units). If there is any character that is consistent to these products, I’d extrapolate from my experience with the H3000 (once fully burned in and using a NOS rectifier tube in my case): lot’s of flesh on the bone, but not bloated or "tubey" sounding- it doesn’t sound analytical at all-probably the opposite, but there is a lot of information coming through that I wasn’t hearing on my earlier phono stage (a Steelhead that had some pretty serious tubes in it). With tubes, many times "imaging" or stage depth is a "wholesale" thing--in that all the instruments seem to benefit by more space or air but in the same plane; with the Allnic, I’m hearing something a little different. The spatial relationship between individual instruments is more obvious, but more discreetly placed, front to back, top to bottom and within that, the dynamic contrasts of individual instruments are more evident. The overall tonality of the thing is probably a little "burnished"- some people I know who have tried the H3000 find it "soft" sounding, but it does have real dynamics if that is on the program material. The only other caveat- and I’m not sure if it applies to the H1201- it took a while for me to get the signal tubes to settle- they did have a tendency to sing a little- no squeal through the audio path, but if you were near the unit, you could here them sympathetically ringing- I think it has to do with the type of tube Mr. Park uses- and the circuit- at least in the H3000, they are not terribly expensive tubes, but are not garden variety small tubes commonly used for audio circuits. The unit is extremely well made, and has been trouble free over the course of the several years I’ve been running it. You might talk to Albert Porter, the US distributor (particularly if you are buying used); Christian a/k/a Rockitman, who (I believe) tried the H3000 before going wild on the DHT phono unit from Allnic, but who also played with the Lamm phono stage (which is pretty reasonable used). Good luck. You are welcome to visit if you want to hear mine, I gather you aren’t all that far from my NY house.
best,
best,