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Help.... I'm scared to 'upgrade'!

Help…. I’m scared to ‘upgrade’!

I’m an unrepentant audiophile. I love equipment; buttons, knobs, dials, beautiful design, meters. Of course, I’m enthralled by music. It’s a deeply enriching and important part of my life. This makes me the perfect mark for spending way too much money on gear. I know that, oh well. So I want to upgrade from my cheap phono-stage but I’m full of doubt and hesitation. Let me explain….

I have what I consider a pretty great system, the heart of which is an Accuphase E-470. My speakers are a pair of ATC HTS-40’s (same drivers and specs as the SCM 40’s), and a pair of JL Audio D-110’s. Streaming is through a Bluesound NODE and an RME ADI DAC 2 fs. Mostly that great digital front end is used for TV and podcasts. When I settle down to really listen to music it’s through my analog front-end. That’s what this post is about.

I’ve had four or five phono-stages over the years and in fact I just sold a very nice all-tube one for $4,200. It simply wasn’t as quiet as the AD-50 input board installed in my E-470. I want all of those ‘audiophiley’ qualities like a holographic soundstage, magical midrange etc., but those have to emerge from an extremely quiet background and with extra high resolution. That’s why I sold a Parasound JC 3+ years ago because of too much hiss. And it was easy to sell a Rega Aria because that thing was great at generating it’s OWN noise. Yes, I’m picky. The AD-50 in my Accuphase is nice but the allure of ‘the next level’ is always tugging.

Then I accidentally bought an iFi Zen Phono! I was helping my son-in-law with his first TT and found a great used one here on Audiogon. He lives far away and I wanted to install a nice cart I had and dial it in pretty close before sending it on to him. I recommended one of those based on ‘buzz’ and he ordered one immediately. I did too, thinking I’d send it along with his TT. Anyway, for less than $200 I decided to keep it for a nice back-up. The thing is, it sounds absolutely phenomenal in my system. It’s paired with an extremely customized and modded Rega deck with an Hana Umami Red. I also have a Luxman PD-171A with an Ortofon Cadenza Black. That combo generates some great sound too.

So here it is…. The iFi Zen Phono is just crazy good. I think it’s better than the JC+, the Rega Aria that I had, and even the Luxman EQ-500 that I recently let go. Has anyone upgraded from the Zen Phono and to what? My short list includes the Whest Audio PS.40RDT, the new Accuphase C-47 (which would mean selling as much gear from my stash as possible), or an FM Acoustics FM 122-MKII. What else should I consider? I’m very intrigued by the Thoress Parametric Phono Equalizer too. What scares me is that might spend 6 to 12 grand on a unit that barely outperforms the ‘lowly’ Zen Phono.

Thanks for Reading!
Cheers,
~Oran

oranfoster

Showing 5 responses by mulveling

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
2,224 posts
 

Those 2 nice cartridges you have (Cadenza Black, Umami Red) are electrically in the "sweet" range for a SUT (15x - 20x), so you might consider one of those partnered with an MM stage. Hum / grounding can be a pain with these, but if you do it right the SUT gives "free", relatively noiseless gain, which seems to be very important to you. The other way to combat noise floor is to move to a higher output cartridge, but I'd hate to suggest that given you've already got very nice low (but not too low) output ones. 

The other suggestion for current injection / transimpedance stages is good too. You tried a few traditional SS and tube stages and didn't like them, so your choices are: 1. Keep trying, 2. Go WAY up in quality & price point, 3. Try a different approach 

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
2,224 posts
 

I am curious about one thing here: I own both the Aria and the JC3+ and don’t hear any noise issues with either? 

It's a function of your cartridge output (lower output carts are harder) and how loud you listen. Then there's the bugaboo that even if you achieve a dead quiet noise floor from your phono stage in the seating position with volume up way high and no music playing, this floor might be completely swamped by your minimum groove noise anyways. 

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
2,224 posts
 

@sgreg1

Yes, we all (almost) love music here. We also all (almost) love gear too. One need not degrade the other - they can boost each other if done right. There are plenty of audio groups out there with the goal posts set towards "whomever spends the LEAST on their turntable / cables / speakers / amp / system WINS", and their expensive gear bashing tropes are incredibly repetitive and boring (like a toddler so so smug that he learned the F word). THIS is not one of those groups, which I am thankful for.

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
2,224 posts
 

A "-151dB dbv noise floor" spec seems highly misleading, if not an outright lie. What level is the reference "signal" at, by comparison? Signal-to-noise ratio is the number that matters for phono applications, since you have a downstream volume control (your line preamp) to re-level the signal as needed. Since their own page even lists the "MC v lo", "MC lo" and "MC hi" gains in clearly reversed order (error), I’m not confident on the veracity of that eye popping noise floor spec.

I guess the single balanced output could be a TRRS (tip ring ring sleeve) connector, which is popular with the portable head-fi crowd, but seems like a terrible misapplication for a PHONO STAGE.

EDIT: OK, they do list out the Signal-Noise ratio specs for the iFi Zen phono, which look reasonable. That -151dB number is for "Equivalent Input Noise", which I guess means the residual noise floor on output side matches what a *perfect* amplifier of the same gain would yield on its outputs when fed a noise signal of -151dBv at the inputs. That’s a dumb spec lol. Signal-To-Noise ratio is what you want to compare with.

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
2,224 posts
 

@oranfoster

Sorry, I was being hyperbolic about the pentaconn input (also I incorrectly said TRRS when it's TRRRS). It was just surprising to see it in a phono stage, where portability is not a concern - though I suppose compact form factor still has advantages for close placement to a turntable.

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