Suggestions for Phono Preamp

@grislybutter Believe me, I’ve looked at both (Hegel and Parasound) but they have downsides too like most everything. The biggest thing is that I obsess about this and spend as much time as I can looking at reviews and forums so it will be worth paying some money to stop the madness.

@dz13

I used Amazon and Crutchfield and SafeandSound to try out 4 different ones.

All I know about PS Audio is that their products are very good value, it’s solid company and community/fan base with great support, I corresponded with them a few times.

Sutherland and Musical Surroundings are good too, I heard the first at someone’s house and tried MS at home, and I agree it’s easy to get confused and crazy with so many choices.

I would have this problem if I upgraded my amp, too many choices. I am cataloguing 200+ audiophile speakers for this purpose, to help my decision and learning process and maybe somebody else’s as well

Decision made.

It was between a used Don Sachs Phono Stage, Hagerman Bugle MC, and a PS Audio Stellar Phono Preamp. I chose the latter. 

The Hagerman and the PS Audio were new and the Sachs was used. They were all about the same price. Reviews of all 3 were good and maybe even stellar for the PS Audio. The Sachs was very intriguing especially with the Sachs’ integrated I have. I’ve seen some Audiogon members say that the Hagerman and the Sachs were pretty close. That means that the Hagerman beats out the Sachs since it would be new and it has the dials I wanted in front. The Sachs was set up fairly easy but the plus goes to the Trumpet.

The PS Audio, new, is twice the price of the Sachs and the Hagerman, and yet I was able to get it at about 1/2 price new with warranty. I am assuming it may be a step up or at least it is a quiet well performing phono preamp that is future proof and I won’t be spending money on tubes which I tend to do with all my tube equipment. I’m not as concerned with a tube phono preamp since the amp is tube. The other bonus is that the PS Audio you can use the remote(!) for the loading and gain settings. Even easier than a front dial. No more getting up or moving from the chair! (just being silly -- I know that once the settings are locked in, you don’t really have to mess with them again until you change cartridges). Easy peasy.

Thanks everyone for their input as well as other threads where these phono preamps were discussed. If anyone wants to know where you can get this phono stage at this price (because there are more), throw me a line though we have to talk outside of Audiogon as they have some rules about this.

yeah, 3K for the Stellar is not cheap, but I hope it's worth it (or the discounted $ you paid)

'cept I won't know because I won't hear the other ones. Research and faith. Research and faith.