Budget phono stage- advice appreciated

Mjm forgot to mention how much the Black Cube compresses the dynamic range. The E.A.R. 834P is in a different league, being twice as expensive as the Black Cube, at least in my country. I thought that the price range of the phono preamp in question in this thread should be below $400.

In support of Carl, the German Audiomeca agent used a Musical Surroundings Phonomena to preamp an Audiomeca J1 linear tracking turntable (a very serious turntable) at the latest Frankfurt High End exhibit. It sounded very musically involving with the cartridge they were using.

i found the phonomena a bit dry for my taste, but mebbe it was my linn kairn pro? i had an earlier kairn (w/o slimline-version of the brilliant power-supply) - its built-in fono-stage was nicer than the phonomena, even tho the slimline p/s in my later kairn had better sound on cd & tuner. (btw, carl, you can get *excellent* sound from a good tuner, if the station is uncompressed, & you have a decent signal). in defence of the phonomena, tho - it had *no* problem w/noise, being used w/a 0.18mv mc cartridge. i replaced the phonomena w/a pentagon p-3 which is a *lot* nicer, imho. but, it is ~3 times the price. fortunately for me, no one in the usa knows this product, so it dint cost me much more than the phonomena.

I concur with Mjm and Slawney. The 834P is in an entirely different league and a steal even at retail. I've owned many phono stages over the years, most recently a Sonic Frontiers SFP1 and a Joule Electra OPS1 which the EAR beats. Harry Pearson was quite impressed with it. Yes, it's a bit over your budget, but can be had used with a volume control for around $500-550. So if you don't need a preamp for anything else in your office system it is a very reasonable way to go and so much better than the other offerings here. Unfortunately, you may have to wait a bit to find a used one, but it will be worth the wait for a guy who actually has a turntable in his office! Good luck and enjoy.

Slawney -- about the cube's dynamic limitations, you're right, it's very noticeable. I never really came to grips with what the cube was doing wrong, as while dynamic compression was audible, in my listening sessions the compression seemed to affect different pieces unequally. Nothing so gross to permit saying it can't do a particular frequency range; strangely, it squashed different pieces, different types of music, differently, if that makes sense. Maybe someone here has heard that too and can explain it?