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                                             
128x128mattmiller
Another way to deal with the ground loop without resorting to cheater plugs is to use a full wave bridge rectifier installed between chassis ground and audio ground, in either your preamp or phono stage, or both.  You install it such that the diodes provide the isolation between the two, but there is only a ~2V voltage drop (that of two diodes in series) between audio and earth ground, which ain't going to hurt anyone.  You would need an experienced tech, unless you understand the theory. A simpler method is to use a low value resistance, like 100 ohms, to separate the two grounds, which might or might not work.  Meantime, like Almarg, I don't think the danger of what you have done is so great as to cause panic.  The un-grounded components are in contact with earth ground via the ICs, assuming that your amplifier's earth ground and audio ground are in continuity.  OR, even simpler, you might find that re-arranging the plugs so that they all come off the same AC receptacle would permit you to go back to using 3 prongs. 
lewm


.... even simpler, you might find that re-arranging the plugs so that they all come off the same AC receptacle would permit you to go back to using 3 prongs.
This is the closest to the best solution to this common problem, imo. The hum/noise is caused by a differing voltage potential in the grounds. Relying on grounds of equal voltage potential will eliminate the noise. That's a benefit of using properly installed dedicated lines.
I have owned an original Musical Surroundings Nova Phenomena for a year and a half and it has performed flawlessly and is dead quiet.

Good luck sorting this out. Please be careful with your choice of resolution so as to not put you or your gear in jeopardy.

Tom