Dynavector P75 Mk ii

I've had both of these preamps, your idea of the GCPH being better is IME, the better sounding unit.

I then moved on to the Simaudio Moon LP 5.3, with outboard power supply. That was much better, but I wound up selling it to someone with the Dyna P75.

He wasn't prepared for how much better his Scout sounded. I moved on to a tubed phono stage (Modwright SWP 9.0, w/upgraded power supply), that will remain in service for me for the unforseeable future. It's a real keeper.

Thanks for the response.

I am definitely leaning more and more towards the GCPH. The Dyna seems to sound a bit more "hi fi", whereas the GCPH just sounds more like music. The Dyna is, however, a bit quieter in my setup. Although, the hum I was getting when using the GCPH with my previous turntable has seemed to reside a bit after upgrading to the Classic 1. At this point it's very close. For the time being, I will be living with the GCPH. Have had it for about 3 years now and has performed pretty well for me.

I will have to keep the Moon and the Modwright on my list for when it's time for a real upgrade.

This is a funny hobby. I had both the GCPH and the P75, although it was a MK3 and there wasn't even a question about which was better. The P75 just killed the GCPH. Better tonality, better sound stage and a much more relaxed sound, exactly the opposite of the OPs experience. This was both with the DV20XL and a nuded Denon DL103. By the way, I also preferred the P75 Mk3 to the Hagerman Cornet 2 (with step up) and the EAR 834P. I ended up with Herron, which is definitely better but cost $1800 used. If you ever get a chance to pick up an old PS Audio PSIII phono stage, grab one. I found it to be better than the GCPH in my system. I ended up keeping the PSIII as my backup.

Dhcod: What is interesting, is yesterday I played around with the damping fluid in the arm of my Classic 1, and that has tamed some of the excessive treble energy that was coming from the 20X2L. Now that I've adjusted that, the P75 may actually sound better. I will have to go back and listen to the P75 again after I've made this tweak. The P75 does sound better from a technical standpoint, but I think it was bringing out that extra treble energy, whereas the GCPH was sort of masking it, with its warmer sonic character.

I don't think I've heard of the PSIII. The GCPH I think is very nice, but it doesn't fair as well with very low output carts like the 20X2L; you can hear noise coming from the speakers.

I will report back with my findings.