Aesthetix Rhea signature phono stage

Corby, When you use the term "powered down", do you mean switched off, using the rocker switch on the rear panel, or to "Standby" mode? If the latter, I can understand why that would damage the circuit; there are still high voltages in the chassis. It might even be unsafe to pull tubes in that condition. However, it's true that there are a plethora of ICs used to run all the automated features, and these can be damaged by careless operation. I know this, because I killed an IC myself while installing new coupling capacitors in my Janus Signature. (Well, I converted it to "Signature" with new caps.) This was due to my goof; one of the new caps was shorted to the chassis.

As for "noise", I am not sure what to think yet of the Janus. However, it can sound great. I only wish it had a "Mono" switch, for mono LPs.

Cerrot, Take it from me that upgrading the capacitors in the Rhea, which is essentially the difference between the original and the "Signature" versions, makes a world of difference. If you like your Rhea now, you will feel like you bought a new upscale phono stage after the upgrade is done. I replaced the coupling caps in my plain Jane Janus with Vcaps and the output caps with polystyrene film caps, and the difference is huge. (I did it myself, thus probably voiding the warranty but thus also saving a lot of money.) I listened to it all day yesterday; it's as least in the same league (now) with my best preamplifier, which costs many times more than the Janus. Incidentally, you might ask Aesthetix if they would use Vcaps in lieu of their usual choice for the Sig upgrade.

sbrown, Yes, I noticed that they seem to have replaced all the 2uF output capacitors with 4uF values.  I got this from poring over the photos on their website.  Thus I cannot see whether truly ALL the 2uF caps are replaced with 4uF values.  Perhaps you know. 
thekong, The in-circuit coupling capacitors are all 0.22uF values and the output coupling capacitors (which value is used in the Janus both between its phono section and its linestage and at the output of the linestage) are all 2uF in the "plain" Janus, and as noted appear to be 4uF in the Signature versions of both the Janus and the Rhea.

I used TFTF Vcaps to replace all the 0.22uF values, which is a huge upgrade over the REL metallized polypropylenes in the plain version of the Janus.  Then I used some polystyrene film and foil capacitors, made by the now defunct PASCAP company (Pacific Audio Supply), that I happened to have in my stash, to replace all the 2uF REL polyprops in the Janus.  Those PASCAPs are positively wunderbar.  I originally purchased 36 of them (mixed, 200V and 250V ratings) to build the needed capacitance for a speaker crossover which I later tore out of said speaker.  I quite accidentally found out how good they are in electronics by installing a few in an old Quicksilver preamplifier.  It's very difficult now to find polystyrene film and foil capacitors in values above 1uF.  I don't quite know why Aesthetix chose to increase the output capacitor values to 4uF in the Signature types; the bass is really excellent in quality and thunderous in the refurbished Janus. But hey, more capacitance can't hurt.