The Mighty Puffin

I have a Puffin in one of my secondary systems and am currently using it with my VPI Classic 2 / Van Den Hul MC-Two Special cart. 

I've tried a number of budget phono stages and haven't seen one that came close to the Puffin, I have a Jolida JD9 II that got relegated to a rarely used system and sold both of my Musical Surroundings Nova Phonomena phono stages, if that tells anything.  It's not quite in the same league as my Manley Chinook or Pass XP-15, but they don't leave it in the dust and cost a few times what the Puffin does.  Both of those have a little more "body" than the Puffin, and more flexibility in terms of loading options.  The Puffin however, has more gain settings than most phono stages.

The Puffin has a lot of flexibility, but I think it sounds best with all the controls neutral.  Updating is easy and it's cool that Shannon is always tinkering and adding new stuff, like the "Magic" feature to minimize pops and tics.  I don't use it, because I use this system for play grading records, but it works.  It won't completely eliminate all noise, but quiets things down and doesn't seem to degrade playback.  He's also pretty easy to get in touch with if you have questions and is super passionate about what he does.

I recommend it to anyone that's looking for a phono stage under $1K.

I listened to a record last night that was really noisy and thought I'd throw it on my VPI to see if it sounded as bad there.  To my surprise, it was really quiet and right away I started thinking about what could be wrong with my other table, which has a cartridge with a brand new stylus on it. 

It took me a minute to realize that I had turned the "magic" function on in the Puffin and forgot to turn it off, and that it actually works!

I moved my Puffin into my main system tonight until my new phono stage arrives. It doesn't quite have the body and heft of my Manley Chinook, but it's doing a respectable job and not doing anything "wrong".

@fuzztone the "brand new" stylus is a Jico SAS (boron) in my Shure V15 Type IV. It's a great value, certainly not in the league of some of my other carts, but hard to beat for the approx. $400 I paid for it and the Shure V15 with a broken stylus.