2. amps-preamps
  3. 1031398837

Reasonable preamps with phono stage

Hi, thanks for taking the time to look. I just ordered a musical fidelity A3.2 preamp. I haven't heard it yet, but it probably should sound as goo as a3 which it replaces and it cand be had for >1500$. Am I mistaken but are ther very few preamps for less than 2k new that have a phono stage? MF is a company with a track record that is likely to be in business until the warranty runs out, but few other companies with those characteristics seem to "throw in a phono stage on their preamps. Why is that? Does everyone just want separate phono stages?
rgcards

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jnovak
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Between a friend and myself, we've owned 4 difference versions of the Audible Illusions M3 and M3A. I paid from $600.00 for basic M3 up to $1200.00 for M3A/gold card. I bought the cheapest version just for giggles, not expecting it to out perform a SERIOUS preamp ( like one that costs
4 times as much! )I was shocked at how good the basic M3 sounded. I bought the other preamps expecting to be wowed
even further. Except for the phono stage difference of the John Curl gold card, I couldn't hear ANY differnce between
any of the difference versions..............so I suggest
a basic M3 for minimum investment. Has anyone else found this to be true? Joe Novak
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