Tube Preamp with Full Featured Phono (both MM and LOMC with loading options).


My friend has very little room in one of his systems he wants to upgrade, so a single Preamp with Full Featured Phono built in is advantageous to him.

No Tape, Streaming, DAC needed, so not too many inputs, no XLR needed. Has two TT now, with external switcher to his existing Preamp, that's ok, but two Phono Inputs would be advantageous.

I'm gonna start looking, used is fine, budget 1,500 to 2,500 USD (stretch to 2,700 if just a few hundred more gets a great find).

Remote Volume and Mute would be nice, but not that important in that system. Usually, a Remote gets you a newer used item. I'm not living with remote volume, balance, mute. He could find room for the Chase RLC-1 Remote Line Controller he has heard here many times.

That opens the door to Full Featured Vintage Tube Preamps, but that is usually only MM Phono needing an external SUT, costing more, and taking more space. I showed him my FRT-4 SUT which fits under my Turntable, he could do that.

Lots of options, his preference is a single Tube Preamp with Full Featured Phono for both MM and LOMC.

Whew!

Any help will be appreciated, thanks in advance

Elliott

 

elliottbnewcombjr

@vitussl101 

Do I detect an anti tube bias?

I used to hear hiss when I was much younger, and MC was new, all the pre-preamps, as some called them i.e. signal booster by any name, hissed, every one I heard, in all the NYC audio stores I visited. Not for me, pay all that money for noise?

I finally tried my 1st MC in 2019, age 71, no hiss. I thought, damn, they have gotten rid of the hiss! Got a nice SUT, no noise, even near my TT's motor, out to my Vintage MM Phono stage in Mcintosh mx110z tube tuner/preamp, hot damn, no noise.

I have some young eared audio friends, nobody hears any noise.

You must be going by some old memories, or poor designs.

 

I haven’t tried every tube component under the sun but the rogue pieces I owned did not hiss. Not the preamps, not the amp. At least with normal sensitivity speakers you should not hear any hiss at normal volumes. 
If you have 104db efficient speakers then you’re going to hear hiss even with some solid state gear. 

anyone with a higher budget, this Audio Research SP-11 with Phono sure looks good!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/397696763355?mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338381866&toolid=10001&customid=afeac26c-2073-11f1-89cf-393937323262

Says local pickup only, you just need to have them drop it off in your name, unboxed, to a local UPS, you pre-arrange pack & ship.

@audphile1 

My speakers are highly efficient horn tweeters and horn midrange from Electrovoice in 1958, came from my uncle's Fisher President II Console.

I changed the tweeters from T35 to T350's, and use the L-Pads to match their volume to the Mid Horn.

https://www.audiogon.com/systems/11420

both horns have drivers with impregnated linen, I'm told essentially indestructible. I have re-coned the 15" woofers a few times over the years, I am shocked and deliriously happy that the horns are still producing (I blend them with the woofers using a pair of L-Pads and an SPL mic on a tripod at ear level with test tones) I did melt a T-35 tweeter coil blasting Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida on Reel to Reel Tape once.

I guess they are over 100db efficient, maybe 102, 104 ????? 

You are correct, If I get my ear near the tweeter, I might hear some hiss, but often not.

@elliottbnewcombjr Yes minor hiss that requires your ear on top of a tweeter is a nonissue and can’t be avoided with the super efficient speakers. I had Audio Research LS15, LS16, LS25 and Ref1. That generation of ARC had a decent amount of hiss and I heard it when music wasn’t playing thru the not very efficient B&W N803s. When the music started I couldn’t care less. Modern ARC stuff and Rogue that I heard in my system were dead nuts quiet. 
In any case, when you’re listening to vinyl you’re already dealing with surface noise, statics, etc.

To obsess over minor hiss is not the best possible pastime.