Ear 834P vs. Wright 200c Phono Stage Amps

Hi,

Can I ask which amps that you considered and why these 2 are the last amps standing?

I have tried a few phono amps.All of them being solid state. These last two are my tube choices. They are in my budget. I prefer the tube sound over solid state.

I'm a fan of George Wright's phono stages. I had the WPP200c and the 834P in my system at the same time for about a year. The Wright was better in every respect. It had a more natural sounding timbre; it was airier; and it was better at presenting a three-dimensional image. All in all, it was more enjoyable. To get the most out of it when using a moving coil, you should be using a SUT to load the cartridge correctly. A lot of people don't do this to avoid the extra cost or to avoid the extra device and interconnects. But the default input impedance is 47k ohms which isn't correct for a MC. Depending on the cartridge, it should be between 10-150 ohms. That's a huge difference.

Some say the 834P is the best you can get in its price range, but in my opinion, and in my experience, it's over-rated. For starters, it has too much gain for most cartridges (49 dB MM and 68 dB MC). Depending on the gain structure of your system, this could be overwhelming as it was in my case. Along with the stock tubes that came with the 834P, I tried Mullard 12AX7 Groove Tube re-issues, Tung Sol's, ei's, JJ's, and Mullard CV4004 which are very highly regarded. While it never sounded bad, none of these tubes delivered the kind of magic the WPP200c and WPP100c did. Some say Telefunken's will bring it to life, but then you're looking at $150-200 recurring replacement costs. I decided it wasn't worth it.

Have you considered an Eastern Electric MiniMax Phono? I haven't heard it, but some say it's a giant killer. Check out this forum: Phono Pre with AES AE-3

I can Highly suggest looking at the NEW Jolida JD9A,,, Currently it is taking the new spot in affordable yet super feature packed phono stages… Uses just a pair of 12AX7 tubes, has high and low outputs, also sports up to 95 db of gain, yes you read that correctly, it will run any cartridge or any system, also has both resistive and capacitance loading… Built extremely well and does have about 10 professional reviews out on it from like soundstage, 6moons, absolute sound I think, and several others..

All praise its ability and with some NOS tubes it will probably go up against some of the best stand alones. check it out and right now you can find them as low as 375 brand new with warranty and return policy vs. trying something used and not finding what you want. The other nice thing from the looks of this unit is its very compact build with the tubes layed down and protected etc… Its only about 2" high and will fit under or on many shelfs without taking up an entire area on you.

Its pretty new so this is why the hype has probably not reached every thread yet, but if it does half of what most seem to claim so far that’s the real giant killer on your hands.     

Thanks for all the help. I got the George Wright WPP200c phono amp. I'm using a Dynavector 20xH. It sounds real real nice. I now have a Musical Fidelity X-LPSv3 on sale for half price. CHEERS

Excellent! Please report back with your impressions.