One could write a thousand words on this subject, but suffice to say that while no one can say that your dissatisfaction with modern phono stages is "wrong" (because you are entitled to that opinion), one might fairly say that your thesis for why there is a dearth of superb phono stages (in your opinion) is skating on thin ice and maybe not worth debating. I wish you good luck in finding something that finally makes you happy, but ask yourself if that is really possible. I personally have found that by first educating myself on the relevant aspects of electronics, I have been able to modify commercial gear that is already very good and bring it up to a level of performance that I find very satisfying and which doesn’t leave me yearning for anything better, though I try to keep an open mind in case something better does come along. So far, current drive (for one example) as represented by the few such units I’ve heard, is not an answer. But then again, I am not about to spend $90,000 on a phono stage.
Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
In the world of analog playback, there is an interesting observation. There has been tremendous innovation in the field of
Turntable - Direct, Idler, Belt
Cartridge - MM, MC, MI
Tonearm - Gimbal, Unipivot, Linear Tracking
For all of the above designs we find some of the best reference components designed in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. Most of the modern products are inspired from these extraordinary products of the past. But when it comes to phono stage, there is hardly any "reference component" from that era. They just standardized RIAA curve for sanity and left it. Manufacturers made large preamps and amps and allocated a puny 5% space for a small phono circuit even in their reference models, like a necessary evil. They didn’t bother about making it better.
The result? It came down to the modern designers post 2000 after vinyl resurgence to come up with serious phono stages for high end systems. Unfortunately they don’t have any past reference grade designs to copy or get inspired from. Effectively, just like DACs, reference phono stages is also an evolving concept, and we don’t have too many choices when we want a really good one which is high-res and natural sounding. Very few in the world have figured out a proper high end design so far. And most of the decent ones have been designed in the past couple of decades. The best of the breed are probably yet to come.
It is a tragedy that our legendary audio engineers from the golden era didn’t focus on the most sensitive and impactful component, "the phono stage"
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- 147 posts total
- 147 posts total