Phasemation seems to be gathering a bit of a following with their phono stages and cartridges. After reading Shakti's phono adventures and how he ended up with the mighty EA-2000 it piqued my interest in Phasemation. I was looking for a tube alternative to my SS Accuphase C-37 and it had to have 3 inputs. Up came the EA-1200.
EA-1200 -
How does it sound -
difficult to describe. Silence is the first thing I noticed. This is below whisper quiet. the music flows with purity, the sound staging and details are pretty amazing, especially in the mid range and vocals. The bass is very fast and nimble which was the biggest surprise for me. This is certainly no rolled off, flabby bass tube phono stage.
This phono stage just seems to enable you to listen to the music more and for longer periods. that for me is the most pleasing part. Sounds excellent with the Lyra Etna SL and Ortofon A90. I will set the Lyra Atlas Lambda SL and SPU up over the weekend to hear how these sound.
only had it for a week, so more to come. Would luv to hear from other Phasemation owners.
I shudder to think how the EA-2000 sounds.





EA-1200 -
1. NON-FEEDBACK LCR EQUALIZER DUE TO TUBE TYPE UNIT AMPLIFIERS COMPOSED WITH TWO MONAURAL BLOCKS
- A transformer equivalent to T-1000 is built in and all three inputs can be switched to MC or MM for balanced inputs. In addition, Phasemation adopted the BAL/UNBAL switch for countermeasures towards noises when an unbalanced connection is made on the MC.
- The non-feedback SRPP-type amplifying circuit of ECC-803S which has an excellent transient response and an outstanding reputation for sound quality plus the low impedance output cathode follower due to ECC-802S are together adopted as a unit amplifier. You can enjoy the large dynamic range and its glossy and lively sound quality that is possible only in vacuum tubes.
- The LCR type is adopted for the equalizing circuit. Power loss and inductive noise in the signal line can be minimized and sound quality deterioration can be suppressed by adopting the LCR type which can reduce the impedance of the signal system. The information obtained is outputted from the last stage without any losses by adopting large coils, high quality film capacitors, and so forth.
- Three types of equalizer curve switches are installed. The RIAA for stereo, Mono 1 (for use with DECCA label and so forth) and Mono 2 (for use with Columbia label and so forth) can be selected. Mono1 and Mono2 are for monaural use only. This enables a higher fidelity playback for both the DECCA and Columbia labels.
2. POWER SUPPLY WITH DIRECT HEAT RECTIFIER TUBES 5U4G COMPOSED OF A MONAURAL BLOCK USING A HIGH-CAPACITY R-CORE TRANSFORMER.
For the rectification circuit, an R-core power transformer with excessive capacity is used and a rich rectification circuit is used for each independent left and right power supplies by using two choke coils and rectifier tubes (5U4G) which in principle do not generate switching noises. Furthermore, the power supply transformer and choke coils are magnetically shielded to provide a cleaner and stronger power to the amplifier. In addition, a 3-terminal regulator DC ignition system is used for the heater power supply of the amplifier achieving a high S/N ratio.How does it sound -
difficult to describe. Silence is the first thing I noticed. This is below whisper quiet. the music flows with purity, the sound staging and details are pretty amazing, especially in the mid range and vocals. The bass is very fast and nimble which was the biggest surprise for me. This is certainly no rolled off, flabby bass tube phono stage.
This phono stage just seems to enable you to listen to the music more and for longer periods. that for me is the most pleasing part. Sounds excellent with the Lyra Etna SL and Ortofon A90. I will set the Lyra Atlas Lambda SL and SPU up over the weekend to hear how these sound.
only had it for a week, so more to come. Would luv to hear from other Phasemation owners.
I shudder to think how the EA-2000 sounds.




