built-in phono stages -- good idea?


It seems to me that the best location for a phono stage is at the tone arm wire end -- in the turntable. My thoughts:

This would bring the following benefits to its performance:
Elimination of the sensitive and susceptible phono cable
Reduction of the need for a balanced phono stage
Reduction of noise without the need for balanced design -- half of the battle is won already.

Both are significant advantages, I think. But this puts some limitations on the design of the phono stage:
Needs to be very compact solid state design, probably SMD. Access to loading options and mc/mm switching need to be thought out and accessible from rear or underneath. Again, both doable.


Why don’t we see this more often? Your thoughts?


Herman
gera

Showing 2 responses by gera

The power supply would be external of course. Only low voltage in the turntable + shield box on the actual compact phono stage.

I don't know... it seems like a good idea to have the amplification as close as possible to the delicate signal source, to reduce the amount of noise being picked up. It is now possible to have compact, high performance phono pre amps thanks to SMD.and good opamps. Just seems logical so I must be missing something ???