Tavish Vintage vs Bottlehead Eros


My AES PH-1 just doesn;t have the gain for my Soundsmith Otello cartridge. I've gotten down to these two phono preamps and would love any input on them. I like a warmish musical sound with a large well defined stage. Good detail retrieval helps, but a little less won't sink the deal. Cool, analytical or a flat stage is a definitely a no go....
Tavish uses the same 6SL7s and I love their sound. They'll also tweak a build for me to bring the MM gain up to suit my needs - pretty sweet.
Bottlehead Eros is a little unknown to, but looks and reviews to be outstanding for the price. The gain is fine at 50db
If anyone
budburma

Showing 3 responses by budburma

Tavish it is! That all makes great sense.
Yes, the Eros is a kit, but there are a couple already built ones for sale now 

Thanks - I really appreciate the input.

I’m pretty psyched: Scott’s going to adjust the and I live close enough to pick it up to boot. Sweeeet!
My set up ran out of volume/gas w/the 38db of the AES and was much better with the 45db from the internal MM stage on my VPI 299d. Not so fond of the SS sound out of that set up though. Too bad - the AEE is pretty great sounding. The Otello is a goid match with the SME arm and modded vintage Thorens.

I’m looking forward to some enjoying some tunes! $350 is a great buy. I often wonder who gets those deals - an EAR 834p just th it snatched for $450....right place right time! Timing isn’t personsal, just everything 
@hagtech I've been looking at, considering and mulling over your Cornet for some time.  It is very much on my sonic mind and comes up consistently in my musings. That said, I really like the 6SL7 sound. so your tube rectified octal version was really attractive to me (...except for the gain...). So is your Cornet3 actually. I'm a bit of a tweak geek and when I see the 3 and the kits that came before, I start looking at the upgraded cap and resistor path right away to warm and round the sound...one of my many symptoms. 12ax7's cost for NOS these days is also a drag.
Mods are not so easy without the kit being available and my solder jockey retired...However, the Cornet3 does have the gain I'm looking for and 6SL7's are generally lower in the 38db range - the Tavish offers a preceding jfet stage (modifiable) to add a little gain which can be modified to order and so, there it is "like so much fish guts on the table"