Tube Pre Amp + Tube Phono Section


Please give me some recommendations on a tube preamp (either including a phone section or a line-stage tube pre and a separate tube phone section)
Potential candidates so far:
-Audio Research SP6 or SP8 if I could ever find one in decent shape
-Audio Research LS series + separate tube phono stage (which LS is good?)
-CJ line stage (which one?) + separate tube phono stage
Thanks,
Armin
apaya

Showing 1 response by blw

I have experience with the CJ Premier 15 phono stage. It's a very nice piece, around $2K used here on the 'Gon. It's very, very smooth, but doesn't mate well with the really low output cartridges due to its fixed 53dB gain. The system was pretty bloody noisy with my Benz Lo.4 (actual output ~0.3mv).

It's most objectionable deficiency is a lack of deep bass, which curiously is much weaker than even my predecessor low-end solid state phono stages. From about 70 Hz and up, this one is really good, approaching some of the best, although not particularly matching the Aesthetix IO or Rhea. (I haven't heard either of the Aesthetix in my system, so I can't compare that well.)