Recommendations for MM Phono ~ Tube or Solid State

@lalitk Jan felt that the Miyajima design would not benefit his SUT. The ETR-Mono would probably be your best bet for the Zero.

With respect to your desire to add a Miyajima Zero or Infinity, you should contact Robin Wyatt. He is the distributor and knows them well. They can be tricky to manage ground loop hum. I solved it with a dedicated mono SUT and phono…Miyajima ETR-Mono and a mono (only) Tecktron tube phono that Robin commissioned.

I am currently moving away from a Zero and ETR-Mono in favor of a MSL Eminent Solo and a Fonolab Pacto, custom built for mono. You might look into both for a mono rig instead of a Miyajima.

@lalitk I picked up the Solo that I previously put 200 hours on for my dealer, so I know it well. I had my Zero installed at the same time, so I did a lot of A/Bing. I ran the Solo through a Supratek Cortese LCR high gain phono, and the Zero through the ETR- Mono SUT and Tektron mono MM phono, so it wasn’t a super controlled comparison, but did reveal enough for me to make the switch.

In a nutshell, the Zero sounds wonderful but, to my ears, the Solo edges it out with more detail and air at the upper end. I suspect two reasons for that… fine line stylus vs conical, and the low internal impedance design of the MSL cartridges.

What sealed the deal for me was dipping my toe in the SUT waters recently. My stereo phono had been high gain for a very long time, then I gave a Fonolab Pacto a go with my MSL Signature Platinum and was blown away. I remembered what I liked with Solo so I asked Jan at Fonolab if he could build a custom mono Pacto (1/2 Pacto) for the Solo. He loved the idea, so here I am.