Do they make a quiet great sounding phono pre amp??


Hi, I have purchased and listened to 3 phono preamps which are: A musical surroundings phonomena, musical surroundings Nova II, and a Manley labs Chinook. The Manely labs Chinook is by far bettter sounding then the first two (double the cost too). But, All three have given me nothing but trouble (noise,noise,noise even terrible clipped signals!), and 2 of them basically failed on me. So before I go DIGITAL, can someone please tell me who makes a phono preamp in the $2,000-$3,000 range (tube or solid state) that I can rely on, and sounds as good or better than the Chinook?? Thanks.


Matt M                                             
mattmiller

Showing 1 response by atmasphere

@nandric

Cartridge loading is required if the phono section is unstable with ultrasonic or radio frequency signals present, which will be the case with all LOMC cartridges. This is because their inductance interacts with the capacitance of the tone arm cable to create a tuned circuit that resonates at ultrasonic or radio frequencies.

If the preamp is disturbed by this otherwise inaudible noise, then the loading calms it down by detuning the circuit. Apparently the Klyne is fairly well sorted out and so the loading is there mostly so audiophiles suffering from audiophile nervosa will have some switches to play with. IOW if the preamp is stable, you don't need them.