I recently purchased the ARCAM rPhono and use it with an Ortofon 2M black. The HiFi+ review is what I experienced. The build quality and range of adjustability without having to go into the unit is quite remarable for the price, especially since Partsconnexion has it for $299.99. Note that ARCAM has discontinued the item. One item to note, its pretty tight on the back, the RCA inputs are pretty close, so no firehose RCA cables. But it is a nicely finished full aluminum housing, and the base is solid rubber (no feet) so although pretty light, it stays put on the shelf.
phono preamp for the ortofon 2m bronze
hello need some input . I am looking to get back to my vinyl, I have a kenwood kd650 spinner with a grace 707 tone arm. I need a phono preamp and have been looking at the sim audio 110lp v2, arcam r phono, musical surroundings phenomena II and the last one is the project phono box ultra 500 which does not have any reviews I can find .I would like to stay solid state so are any of these preamps a good choice? if so which is better? there are so many on the market it is hard to pick one out. I would like it to be adjustable also . thanks for the help.
Showing 5 responses by antinn
kully560, If you check www.lowbeats.dem, they tested the 2M ortofon and they yielded 10 mv. I ran the rPhono at 30db with the 2M black and plenty of gain with the volume conrol at a good level, the 2/3rds range. Otherwise, if you dig deeper into this unit, and look at the circuit board photo you will see some real quality. You will see some WIMA resistors which are high quality, and you will see some VISHAY components which are also superior items, and you will see that the electrolytic capacitors are rated 105C. The normal price point caps are rated 85C, the 105C higher rating with low op temperature is good reason to suspect the unit will last decades. Also, if you pull the part number for the TI board, its cost is $50 on its own. Also, of all the units you were reviewing, the rPhono has the largest power supply, 12vdc and 2amp equals 24watts. All the other power supplies were only 0.5amps. I did not want to do a hard sell, but thd Arcam is at $299 is a real steal. Power Holding Inc is a seller of Keces power supplies from Tiawan, and they have a very nice 12vdc unit for $349. However, I am not sure of the real value. Say what you wish of non-linear power supplies, but Sutherland has used them to great reviews, and if you zoom into some of their board photos and pull the vendor and part number, you will see an industrial item that costs less than $30 but has a mean time between failure (MTBF) of over 500,000 hrs. |
kully560, The Arcam at 40db will multiple the input signal 100:1, so a nominal input of 5.5 mv will output at 0.55 volts. The nominal signal ended output from a cd player per redbook is 2 volts. So, the Arcam will need more volume. I did a quick look at your 14B3 amp, and it has a two gain settings. High sensitivity 23db which is 1V for 100watts, or low sensitivity 29db which is 2V for 100watts. If your volume is 2/3 with cd, is the amp set for 29db? If yes, setting to the 23db high sensitivity may give more volume control, just a thought. |
kully560, My version of the 2M BLACK is circa 2016, which would coincide with the version that lowbeats.de tested, and my preamp gain is only 6db. I suspect your version of the 2M Bronze is more recent, and Ortofon may have corrected the output voltage to spec 5.5 mv, especially as evidenced by your Bryston preamp gain 12 db single ended, and 18 db balanced. My 2M black was in need of a retip, but instead of replacing, I just purchased a new Soundsmith Carmen MK2 which Elusive Disk had on closeout at $699, and with future retip cost of only $199 beats the 2M black at $570, and just dialed in sounds great, and Soundsmith cartridges are known for their tolerance of record noise, which the Ortofon 2M Black is not. Otherwise, for now all is bliss, and you know the old saying, if it's not broke, do not fix it. However, if my upgrade itch flairs up, I would consider a power supply upgrade such as the Keces (my radar bleeps when buying some unknown foreign power source, no interest in a fire or being electocuted), but for now just enjoying the music. Otherwise, this arrangement I have is for a 2nd tonearm (VPI JWM 10), that was done on a tight budget. I did not want to replicate my primary. My primary is VPI 12-3D, Soundsmith Paua and Moon LP5.3 with the external power supply. Yes, the Paua/Moon sounds better than the Carmen/Arcam, but its not 4 times (list price difference), better. |