Phono Stage with XLR outs
Taking another stab at vinyl after about a year break. Not going too fancy but would like a phono stage with both RCA and XLR outputs. My amp, Boulder 866, only accepts XLR. I do have a set of Cardas adapters but thinking to do it right.
Budget - under $1500 used or new.
Table - Clearaudio Concept with Hana ML moving coil cartridge.
Not trying to compete with my Meitner MA3i digital front end. Just looking for good natural presentation.
Contenders - Pro-Ject DS3 B, Black Ice Audio Fusion, McIntosh MP100
Any other candidates that I should consider?
@mitterboeck yes I am quiet familiar with the MP100. My friend owns it and I tried it in my system. It was excellent. Probably my favorite McIntosh component. @ghasley I’ll read up on it thanks! |
Although it’s slightly above your budget, I urge you to consider the Hegal V10. The chassis is divided into two compartments, physically separating the power supplies from the sensitive amplification circuitry and avoiding interference.Hegel fitted the V10 with gold-plated terminals, balanced XLR outputs, and a solid custom grounding screw. On the all-important input stage, they used ultra-low-noise discrete JFET transistors for both the Moving Magnet (MM) and Moving Coil (MC) input.
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Skoll circuit is fully discrete and balanced, totally different than OpAmp based Mani. I had not heard Mani, but I'd say Skoll has pretty good timber, staging, instrument separation while being very very quiet. What turned me down eventually is how it handles the attack and leading edge of forte piano notes in solo pieces - distortions are pretty apparent to my ears, perhaps due to rising distortion profile vs frequency which can be seen in measurement data. They are reportedly working on a high-performance solid state balanced phono preamp with either traditional voltage gain or transimpedance scheme at USD 1.5-2K range. |
