Demystifying budget phono preamps

[garylkoh]

Don,
you HAD to bite didn't you? I found alkalines "grainy", nickel cadmiums less dynamic, and heavy-duty the best of the lot (this is time prehistoric before metal hydrides, etc.) This is NOT on the Hagerman - it was some Swiss 2-inch by 8inch black box that I got rid of abut 20 years ago. I can't even remember the name of the thing......

The Hagerman is so cheap that I may just buy a kit and see how far I can take it...... OPA 2170 opamps, Vishay metal foil 0.01% resistors, WIMA caps.......

[DonH50]

Well, come on, somebody was gonna'!

Rather than raise/debate the audibiity of this that and the other, I'll just comment that what very little I know of battery characteristics would agree with your asessments from the technical side. Alkalines offer higher power than standard carbon but noise characteristics very widely -- some better, some worse. NiCd cells tend to have lower voltage and lower peak current due to higher self-resistance, which could cause the dynamic issues you heard. Some of the early battery preamps (don't know anything about today's) sucked a lot of juice and it's possible the batteries weren't up to it.

One thing I observed many years ago, again may not be the case today, is that a lot of battery-powered components had very poor power supply designs. Just hooking a battery straight to the opamp (or whatever) is not always best. A battery is cool and eliminates line hum, at least from e.g. the power transformer, but does NOT obviate the need for proper decoupling, filtering, and shielding. It is not a perfect (ideal) power source.

All imo, since I'm far too lazy to dig up references, and besides I have dress rehearsal tonight so will be busy making music instead of listening to it - Don

[Hxt1]

I was considering modding mine for tape pre duty. Someone posted the R values for nab and IEC curves... Thoughts?

[JoeyGS]

This is an interesting Phono Preamp from iFi:

http://www.ifi-audio.com/en/iPhono.html

Review:

http://www.analogplanet.com/content/...o-preamplifier

[Shaffer]

This is an interesting Phono Preamp from iFi:

http://www.ifi-audio.com/en/iPhono.html

Review:

http://www.analogplanet.com/content/...o-preamplifier

I'd really like to check out this piece in my system.

[mep]

I'd really like to check out this piece in my system.

The price is right. Go for it.

[Shaffer]

The price is right. Go for it.

There are a couple of pieces I'm looking at, this being one. It's just that I live in RFI hell and a home audition is almost mandatory. No local dealer, at least no one who likes me. Ultimately, I have my mind set on the Ayre phono stage. I had one in my K-1. Running the system balanced from input to output really made a HUGE difference in my environment.

[paskinn]

By sheer accident I came across something a bit 'counter intuitive' using a low price phonostage. I borrowed a Cambridge 640p, because my, pricey 'real' phonos,tage was being fixed. Anyway, just out of curiosity, I used my expensive step up (music first) to bypass the mc stage of the Cambridge.The result was quite dramatic, the 640p with the top quality sut, was transformed. it sounded every bit as good as phonostages at $2000, which the 'ordinary' 640p certainly didn't.which leads me to wonder if that first step, where the tiny signal meets the electronics and changes from movement to an electronic signal , is the really difficult trick. Or to ask another question, could a good sut, into a bargain phonostage, outperform a more balanced phonostage? it sounds implausible, but my ears suggest there just might be something in it.