2. analog
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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
dgstereo
6 posts
 
Zesto Andros 1.2 is ultra quite and wonderful sounding.  I would highly suggest looking into it 
jefgerard
8 posts
 

Do you have a record cleaning machine?  I tried cleaning by hand and all I got was noise.  Was going to give up until I got a OKI NOKKI.


Also, the cartridge matters.  Some are more quiet than others.

dinster
76 posts
 
I think it would be hard to beat the AudiaFlight Phono, can deal with low output MC without transformer, quiet,dynamic...an absolute pleasure.
nordicnorm
313 posts
 
You might be able to find a used Blue Circle 703 reference phono stage for ~$3,000? But, they rarely come up for re-sale.

Another worthy Canadian-built contender would be a used Coincident Statement MM/MC phono preamp. Again, these don't come up on the used market very often.
gerardff
78 posts
 
Yeah, I'm not even going to tell you about all the problems I've had to overcome re: EM/RF from nearby high intensity power lines.  Needless to say tubes have been my savior.  Every SS phono has been defeated and I've tried plenty.  Since my preamp is SS it's been doubly challenging. 
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