Ugraditus is calling....again. Phono stage?

May well be Robert
But $1100 got me an Ayre AX7E so its definitely more towards the bottom of my considered upgrade list.

Good point.  I'd much rather have the Ayre too!

I have to report that the ph10 is a much better match with the Ayre than it was with the 2170 to my ears.
It definitely has a more analog, warmer, fuller feel to it.
Been flipping vinyl all day.
One nice thing that is likely helping is the gain in the Ayre on the balanced input I am running the ph10 into seems fairly high. This allowed me to reduce the gain of the ph10 to -3db again which helped reduce the background hiss considerably.

Ok, I paid less than 1k Euro for Gold Note PH-10 including express delivery. Every Italian shop will be happy to sell you one without charging VAT is you're not in EU (the reason the total is so low for brand new unit). My PH-10 shipped yesterday from Italy.  

@chakster 1k Euro is around $1150 +/- $50 USD. I paid $1250 from Sounds Of Silence for my PH-10 and have full warranty from them. I had contacted Gold Note in Italy initally and they informed me they would not honor updates/warranty if any Gold Note products are bought from outside a Country from where it was purchased not that I've heard of any issues with their products. Just seems an unnecessary risk for a $100 IMO.
Enjoy your PH10 it's a wonderful phono stage.

@rsf507 well, depends where you live, in my area the price difference is huge and shipping from USA is not an option (expensive). I also have full warranty from the Italian high-end shop for my brand new unit which was about 900 euro. Anyway we will see how good or bad this Italian PH-10 phono stage compared to my belowed JLTi from Australia (which is even cheaper).

@chakster sorry I thought you lived in the US.
Keep us posted on your thoughts on the PH-10 but give it at least 100 hrs of break-in to open up.

@rsf507 I live in Saint Petersburg, but not in Florida, i'm in Russia
Yeah, hope i'll get the package next week  

Got it!

It’s love at first sight. I’m hooked
PH-10 is a Top quality product, next generation of the phono stages with user friendly interface and easy access to adjustable parameters with single rotary knob and display (wow, SKC technology). Simply amazing for turntable with two tonearms (as i expected) to switch between MM or MC, it can be also 2 MM or 2 MC connected. It’s such amazing feature that i can save adjusted parameters for each input and quickly switch between them. I am using it with MC cartridges at -3db, so i hope with +6db i can drive even my Ortofon MC2000 0.015mV ... Right now enjoying Klipsch MCZ-10 Ruby and Grace Asakura’s One. The MM input checked with ZYX CPP Headamp fo Klipsch MCZ cartridge, love it. Definitely i love this phono stage! Proud it was made in Europe. I will continue my late light listening sessions. But it’s already stunning! Love this black anodized aluminium cabinet and it’s so heavy.

@chakster if you like it now just wait till you reach the 100 hour mark! It really will open up and sing.
Enjoy 

I also have the "Budgie" with Telefunken tubes, and could not be more satisfied; the Telefunken tubes puts it over the top.

@chakster so after 100 plus hrs with the PH10 any more thoughts? 

@rsf507 sorry, but i was busy with some other things in august, no time for music, trying to catch the last summer days here. 

@chakster  understand I love the outdoors and play a lot of golf but every night I relax and enjoy a few albums. 

Now that I am not using the Lyngdorf 2170 amp any more with its input impedance restriction, I am left wondering just what the HERRON would sound like in my system.
It seems to have numerous advocates by respected members for sure.
However I do love the simplicity of the PH-10 and the sq is to my ears stunning but you just never know.

Of course that would mean more used gear to sell at an ever increasing loss in this extremely depressed market and not sure I can handle any more of that right now either.

May just keep my eyes open for a used Herron but have never seen one yet.

Unboxed in Aug.11th and connected to one of my Luxman PD-444 turntables since that day. Gold Note PH-10 quickly became my favorite high-end phono stage for MC cartridges! This is one and only phono stage that can drive my 0.05mV output Ortofon MC2000 without SUT. While the most of Low Output MC are about 0.15 - 0.3mV, the Ortofon MC2000 has extremely low output of 0.05mV and it’s the most problematic cartridge for any phono stage i have owned (some of them are more expensive than Gold Note).

While most of my LOMC cartridges plays great at -3dB of gain on PH-10, the Ortofon MC2000 is the only cartridge that i use with +6dB gain (the highest). I’m so hapopy to hear the potential of this cartridges with PH-10, last night i played Ramsey Lewis Trio "Uhuru" (original japanese pressing) to a friedns, all of them prefered the sound of Ortofon MC2000 with Gold Note PH-10 compared to FR-7fz connected via another phono stage.

The Ortofon MC2000 mounted on Sony PUA-7 with brand new silver phono cable i’ve recently purchased from Frank at SignalCable SilverResolution (NYC). I’ve asked him to send me his cable with stripped ends, then we carefully attached Xhadow RCAs and DIN. I’m gonna buy another piece of cable from him soon.

The background white noise is still there with Ortofon MC2000 when the arm is lifted, but i think it’s a nature of 0.05mV output, because another reviewer has mentioned same problem even with dedicated SUT made for this cartridge. But when the needle is on the record the sound quality is simply amazing.

Anyway the Gold Note PH-10 does a great job to drive such low output cartridge in my system with super high efficiency drivers in my Zu Audio Druid speakers (101db). I am very impressed by the quality of this cartridge and this phono stage!

I already started thinking about optional PSU from Gold Note for this phono stage, damn, they got me.

I can’t imagine anything better at this price with so many amazing features!

@chakster 
So glad to hear you are happy with the ph-10 and its ability to drive ultra lomc.
Makes me think I made the right choice after all.
The ease of use and speed of changes cannot be bettered by anything out there at any price imho.
The optional power supply is supposed to improve things further but at $1000 I have given that a miss for now.

My present cart is 0.24mv and I run that at -0.3db and the background is the quietest I have ever heard.

Time to stop thinking about a change of phono I feel, maybe just time to look at additional carts for that breath of fresh air.

My present cart is 0.24mv and I run that at -0.3db and the background is the quietest I have ever heard.

Right, it's deadquiet with all my MC cartridges (0.15 - 0.30mV), except for the Ortofon MC200 which is just 0.05mV (the lowest output ever). 

@chakster 
Have you tried any of your collection of vintage MM carts through it yet?

@chakster  are you thinking of getting the GN PSU10 for your PH10?

@uberwaltz 

I have not tried any MM with PH-10, no time for this yet as i bought this phono stage primary for LOMC cartridges. It's amazing that both independent inputs can be used as MC inputs. 

But i will definitely try my vintage MM with this stage later on. 

@rsf507  Yes, i think i need that PSU too, til the end of this year, but i hope to read more comments about that PSU 

I think the $1100 list here in the USA has likely put a few people off upgrading to the psu.

 I have an original Grace F9e that I need to get round to trying someday.

If anyone gets to hear the PSU10 please post impressions. Yes seems a bit steep in price but may just be worth it if it gives a good sonic improvement

A member I know got a great deal on a lightly used ph10 and psu10 together.
They had owned just the ph10 previously so had some baseline to compare.
Their thoughts were it helped a little but might not be worth an $1100 purchase as an upgrade.

My thoughts are that if you could find the right connector you could likely buy a LPS for a lot less money but research would need to be done first, connector, voltage, amps etc.

@uberwalts If you’re not in EU you can buy it from Italy (like i did), the brand new Gold Note Power Supply for PH-10 phono stage cost just 700 Euro ($781) including shipping overseas. This is nowhere near $1100.

This is an amazing upgrade for PH-10 and $781 is fair price for such top quality power supply.

The actual price without shipping is 630 Euro = $700

It is not necessary to pay $400 more to your US distributor if you need Gold Note power supply.

.. and you don't have import tax in the USA for custom value like this, right ? 

Chakster.

Yes now I remember you saying you did this.
Can you say was big upgrade over running standard mains AC though?

While $800 approx is better than $1100 a very good lps can likely be had for $300 to $400 IF could figure out the connection and voltage/ampage etc.

Best euro price I could find was €799.90 so by time added shipping and rate change not a massive saving for what would now amount to a "grey import".

I bought the ps for $875 plus shipping and PP fees from sounds of silence. Still expensive for a power supply upgrade but wanted the matching unit. 

Was that new?
Where is sounds of silence located?

@uberwalts the trick is that you don't have to pay VAT when the item exporting from EU to some other countries like USA for example. Shipping is 70 euro max. Italian shops are official re-sellers and they have warranty from the manufacturer. My rpice was 630 Euro + 70 for shipping.     

Best euro price I could find was €799.90 so by time added shipping and rate change not a massive saving for what would now amount to a "grey import".

@rsf507

Still expensive for a power supply upgrade but wanted the matching unit.

Normally a power supply is just an adapter, usually made in China and looks just like a cheap $20 black plastic box. When i replaced a power supply for my $500 Grado phono stage i paid $170 including shipping from USA (if i remember correct) just for a conventional power adapter, it wasn’t made in USA or Europe, it was made in China or Taiwan.

The Gold Note power supply looks exactly like the Phono Stage itself in a very expensive and nice looking metal cabinet. Made with top quality parts in Italy. Significant upgrade for the phono stage.

It’s not cheap, but i can’t remember any High-End components for cheap, especially power supplies.

Some power cables cost more than Gold Note Power Supply

I did check Italian supplier Chakster and that is where I got the €799 price.
Definitely could not find the price you are referring to.

Do you remember the exact supplier?

www.soundsofsilence dot. com

A member I know got a great deal on a lightly used ph10 and psu10 together.  They had owned just the ph10 previously so had some baseline to compare. Their thoughts were it helped a little but might not be worth an $1100 purchase as an upgrade.

Hey, I think that's me!!  I bought my PH-10 and PSU from Canada.  Corby's audio?, or something like that.

When I did the quick A/B with and without the PSU, I had about 75 hours on both units.  There was a difference, but it was not huge.  However, this was about a month ago, and have since put at least another 50 hours on them.

I did test it again this past weekend, but only to test noise:

 PH-10 setting was for MC, and without playing anything, I would turn the volume up on my PS Audio preamp, gradually until I was able to hear any audible hiss from my speakers at my listening position (7 feet away).

 PS Audio preamp (0 -100 volume is displayed) it took to 48 to hear hiss with the PSU, and only 31 without the PSU.  Nothing extraordinary technical about this test, but found it very interesting nonetheless.

Yes Robert it was you indeed! Lol

However I can also confirm that rsf is indeed correct on the price of the psu10 from sounds of silence.

Very interesting indeed.

I did check Italian supplier Chakster and that is where I got the €799 price.
Definitely could not find the price you are referring to.

Do you remember the exact supplier?

Italy is BIG and there are many shops, email me and i will forward you to the right diresction, they don’t pay me % unfortunately :))

@uberwaltz let all know when you pull the trigger and get the Gold Note power supply and your impressions. 

I had sort of stated that I was done changing equipment.

But this is not really a change is it?

More like an essential piece of the PH10 puzzle … lol

That's my rationale for this one and I am sticking to it!

Well I did eventually progress to a tube phono stage after all.

With a much more impedance friendly integrated doing duty than the Lyngdorf , I decided to bite the bullet.

Was looking at Herron, Manley Chinook, even a BAT PK5.

A Manley Chinook SE was available at a very fair price so decided to give it a spin.

Well I am definitely impressed so far.

A lot more air and dynamics especially concerning vocals,piano and acoustic instruments.

And QUIET!

I mean REALLY QUIET.....

Just a nice inky black background which allows the music to just pop.

That might be the most surprising aspect Tbh. A lot less background noise or hiss than the Gold Note ph10.

No regrets at all .