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Phono for Ortofon A95

Recently got an ortofon A95 for my new TW Acustic Black Night/Kuzma 4Points LP set-up, the whole shebang sitting on a Minus K platform. Needless to say the sound is a big step forward from the old Transfiguration Pheonix/Schick's 12"/Technics SP10 MK2, but I'm just wondering if my old but faithful Pass Labs Xono is doing full justice for the new set-up. Any suggestion?? Something preferably with more than 1 input because the Pheonix/Schick will also be mounted on the Black Night.
nicknick

Showing 2 responses by philb7777

philb7777
401 posts
 
What's the rest of your set up and sonic preferences?

I have an ARC Ref 2 Se phono with two inputs and outputs and very flexible loading options and love it. I have a TW AC, TW 10.5 tonearm and Dyna XV-1t cart.

That said, the Pass Xono is a very nice phono stage.

Congrats on your amazing analog front end - I'm envious!
philb7777
401 posts
 
Very nice system Nick. With your ARC tube pre and excellent Plinius solid state amp, I would stick with a tube phono pre to mate with your upstream tube preamplification. Obviously n ARC tube phono pre would be an great choice to mate with your ARC Ref 3.

With the absolute state of the art turntable you have, it might be worth considering upgrading to the 5se and 2se phono at the same time. You would be blown away with the jump to the 5se. Of course, ARC has the Ref 10 andRef 10 phono, but they are 2.5-3x the cost of the 5se and 2se.

That said, TW makes a new phono pre too. It's flexible, if not more flexible than the ARC stuff with loading and RIAA curves. I don't know much about it other than seeing and hearing it at RMAF 2014 - it seemed very solid like the other TW stuff.
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