Or ceramic
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"
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@jasonbourne71 The "reference standard" in High End is the same as it has always been: its resemblance to live music as heard in the concert hall. UNAMPLIFIED. It’s not as though that hasn’t always been the standard for, say, TAS. Can’t speak to Stereophile or the other mags, as they rarely referred to the live experience. So, for those of us who play instruments, whichever component renders instruments and vocalists the way they sound in real life is "the best." And that includes dynamics. Knowing how an instrument sounds (specific brands, too) makes it easier. Unfortunately, many people have never had a music class in their lives, or had to take it in school, so their choices will be based on something other than "live" experiences. And phonostages are not that hard to identify if someone is familiar with music. The Vendetta, so often referred to in here, had a distinct sound and not for an instant sounded like the phonostage of the Convergent or the Modulus or the Jadis. Their differences were all audible, especially with the Convergent, which had very little sound of its own (except in the midbass). |
McLeod, how many among us can say he or she has heard unamplified music in a concert hall? Most of us regularly hear live music in a small venue, amplified. Some of us do attend concert halls, always also amplified. Yet still one hall sounds different from another. Often I can get closer to verisimilitude at home. Not always of course. That was the flaw in the TAS thesis. A bit of snobbery. |
- 127 posts total