Pre-Pre-Amp Building Leach design or Op-


A contributor to Audiogon suggested to me the Marshal Leach circuit for a moving coil pre-preamp which looks simple but elegant. I on the other hand was considering a low noise op-amp type design. Has anyone out there built the Leach design and would they care to comment. Has anyone used op-amps for such an application and would they care to comment?
This is a stop gap project as I am building a Daniel pre-amp which will handle MC cartridges, but completion is probably a year away and I would like to use the MC cartridge I acquired.
rfj
Forget Leach - Try Borbely's website
Borbelyaudio.com I think.

he has some very very nice discrete FET designs including a very nice low noise Phono front end amp...

_-_-bear (bearlabsUSA.com)
The Leach is a no-brainer that works. You can build better today with some effort but not much quieter.
I had a Leach many years ago. I used it on a Dennon 103 I believe. I felt that it was superior to the step-up transformer that I had at the time. (probably a dennon) I know that it is a good design and with it being battery powered does not hum.

On the other hand the LT1115 is probably lower noise than the Leach and if it was powered from a very good source, I bet it would be better than the Leach.