Next Phonostage

Philb7777, a few years ago I started looking into upgrading my phono stage, at that time an Ayre P5x. I wanted a tube unit and I also wanted true balanced circutry. I had a short list with the Doshi and Atmosphere at the top.

Then ARC released the Ref 2 phono. I ended up getting that and the Ref 5 linestage. Naturally all the ARC stuff plays well together and it mates very well with Vandersteens.

The Ref 2 phono replaced a balanced Einstein TT Choice phono. The differences were not huge but the Ref 2 was better across the board so it added up. I was a bit surprised that the Ref 2 seemed to have a bit more resolution than the solid state Einstein.

I plan to upgrade linestage and phono to the SE next spring.

I don't know if that helps you much since I don't know how the ARC would fit with the rest of your stuff or if you plan on more changes down the road.

There seems to be even more options than a few years ago. Good luck.

TD

A couple other thoughts, which I should have included in my earlier posts
on the subject:
the Steelhead is dramatically affected by the tubes used; if the loaner is the
one that you thought sounded noisy, that raises additional issues about the
tubes; there are a number of threads here about what various tubes sound
like in the Steelhead, but if you were to go out and buy top drawer NOS
tubes for your listening tests, that's going to add to the expense (although
giving it back to your friend with some killer tubes might be a nice gesture
if he is willing to give the unit up for a week to let you play with it- and have
it on hand as needed to compare with others).
The Allnic requires a fair amount of burn-in time- figure at least 100 hours
minimum, and benefits from a better rectifier tube than the one it ships with;
The ARC-- I'm not up on my latest ARC gear ( though I've owned many
pieces of their equipment, starting in around 1974-5) but that may also
require some serious burn-in; I'm not sure about the phono stages, but I
see very high burn in times for the line stages;
You want to pay attention to this, even though the dealer ought to. In some
cases, the dealer should have a 'house loaner' to make available.
I've also heard good things about Paragon in Michigan, which handles the
Doshi equipment.
You can buy an RIAA 'converter/adapter' (for lack of a better word) that
enables you to run a CD into the phono input to accelerate burn-in time
when you are not listening. KAB sells one pretty cheaply, and it works.

A couple of years ago I decided to buy an "end of life" phonostage. I was predisposed to purchase a unit with variable EQ curves because of a large collection of mono LPs and a hankering to get into 78's.

I have heard the ARC Ref 2 in my system. Not my personal taste. The Tron Ref was definitely better in my system. I have heard the Allnic in familiar systems but didn't consider purchase. I have heard the Thoress in a very familiar system and am very impressed but haven't heard it in my system. Would have loved to hear the Zanden with variable EQ in my system but could arrange a demo.

I ended up the an Experience Music LCR phono stage and am very happy with my decision.

Have you thought about FM Acoustics 122 phonostage ?

I have the original Thoress & a Pass XP25. Both excellent. Pass is amazing fr extremely low gain cartridges with exceptional bass (probably the best there is) and detailed natural mids. The highs are warm but maybe lacking the tube magic. A great match for .20mV cartridges that need 72db of gain. The Thoress is something else. An exceptional match for my Titan I. Great detailed bass, just not Solid State bass and not the Pass. But there are no better highs IME. Something magical. Pure, detailed, I wouldn't say holographic as it sounds like music and not musical. There is no phono stage. Just excellent. Tron make several phono stages and I owned the original which didn't match my higher gain art ridge at the time. Cartridge matching is important. Gain especially.

TW uses quite a few phono stages. He tries everything and even solid state and Allnic before anyone in the US heard of it. He also tries many cartridges so finding different pairings is part of bein a designer.

I have had my Thoress for years. I want to sell it to try something else but know it will be a mistake as the cost of anything better will be three times the amount. And will it do the mids and highs as well? So I stay put. The biggest compliment I can give is for equipment to get me off of the merry go round. And I have been with the Thoress for at least five years if I remember right. No problems. Just music. I just need 0.3mV or up cartridges. Deciding what is next for the extra inputs but nothing yet has caught my attention. And I have tried a ton of cartridges with it. I love being able to compare cartridges on the fly and not worry about transformer matching which means you would need a different transformer depending on the cartridges impedance for optimal performance.