Phono Stage - The great analog tragedy
In the world of analog playback, there is an interesting observation. There has been tremendous innovation in the field of
Turntable - Direct, Idler, Belt
Cartridge - MM, MC, MI
Tonearm - Gimbal, Unipivot, Linear Tracking
For all of the above designs we find some of the best reference components designed in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. Most of the modern products are inspired from these extraordinary products of the past. But when it comes to phono stage, there is hardly any "reference component" from that era. They just standardized RIAA curve for sanity and left it. Manufacturers made large preamps and amps and allocated a puny 5% space for a small phono circuit even in their reference models, like a necessary evil. They didn’t bother about making it better.
The result? It came down to the modern designers post 2000 after vinyl resurgence to come up with serious phono stages for high end systems. Unfortunately they don’t have any past reference grade designs to copy or get inspired from. Effectively, just like DACs, reference phono stages is also an evolving concept, and we don’t have too many choices when we want a really good one which is high-res and natural sounding. Very few in the world have figured out a proper high end design so far. And most of the decent ones have been designed in the past couple of decades. The best of the breed are probably yet to come.
It is a tragedy that our legendary audio engineers from the golden era didn’t focus on the most sensitive and impactful component, "the phono stage"
I only gave some examples, there are many more. But from your posts, with all due respect, you would be better off looking at recent products that you can audition and that can be serviced. Spot buying vintage ss components that may need extensive restoration is a recipe for disaster unless you know what you are doing. Tube gear less so unless it is using obsolete valve types. |
Seems the OP has 2 premises: Audio components should progress at a similar rate. I disagree, phono stages much more sorted out and limited to improvements vs amplification. All components classes (turntable, phono stage, amp…) should have desirable vintage gear. This assumption seems baseless. The market for say turntables is much different than for phono stages - Micro Seiki, Garrard 301, Thoren TD124, rim/direct/belt drives… is not the same for phono stages |
Yes, before RIAA stepped in, a number of competing companies had their own formulations. I have an old Quad 34 pre-amplifier which was explicitly designed with controls to tame errant recordings. Quad 34 preamplifier Sam Tellig | Stereophile.com Talking of formulations, the RIAA curve is generated from a relatively simple formula. It is not an algorithm, though a digital phono stage would use an algorithm to model the curve. |
I agree a lot with @dover about high end not co-relating with sound of real music. When it comes to phonostage, what makes it high end exactly? RIAA accuracy? It is a given. In fact most phonostages have very low RIAA deviation (even entry level ones) Resolution? Yea that definitely costs more and depends on quality of parts |
High end phono is no different than anything else in audio--any given model will be liked by some and disliked by others. I have not gone on any sort of careful exploration of the subject, nor have I made that many direct comparisons in my own system or systems that I know well enough to judge the sound. I tend to like tube phono stages and of current brands; I like those made by Audio Note (uk) and Lector (italian). Of the other brands that I am less familiar with, I liked what I hard from Zanden and Doshi. The big disappointment to me was the Boulder which sounded too dry and analytical for my taste. How I arrived at the one in my own system is an embarrassment. I bought it without hearing it from a friend who was the US distributor for the brand. He had to sell the one he used for audio shows because the power supply unit sustained some cosmetic damage so he sold it to me for a small fraction of the retail price. The offer was too tempting to pass up. I got lucky--I like how it sounds. |
