2. amps-preamps
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Why is the trend to make separate phono stage

Why is the trend to make a separate phono stage. Say a high end pre-amp such as Audio Research Reference 2 you need to spend $ 10,000 for a line stage and another $ 7,000 for the reference phono stage. Almost every manufacturer has started to separate the two components. Is this to make more money selling two boxes or has technology gotten so sophisticated that it needs to be separate or lastly maybe only 25 % or less of the buyers want phono, so the manufacturer focuses on the 75 % population that need a line pre-amp. For us oldies it used to be easy to add a MC/MM board to the pre-amp to add the phone section. What happened??
dcaudio

Showing 1 response by bpwalsh

bpwalsh
1,197 posts
 
If the line stage injects noise into the phono stage, an outboard one can sound better. When all is shielded and isolated correctly, the reverse is true, as there are no interconnects involved between phono and line stages. Such is the case with the CTC Blowtorch: those who have compared an outboard Vendetta phono stage (latest tweaked version, of which there are but a handful, including mine) going into a Blowtorch line stage against a Blowtorch with the slightly updated optional Vendetta built in universally report that the latter is better. When the Rev. II Vendetta comes out perhaps by the end of the year (uncertain) it will be as an outboard phono stage, although it will be available as an internal option for the Blowtorch, which is what I plan to do and sell my outboard unit. For what it's worth, the S/N ratio on the Vendetta is at least 40 dB better than that $29k unit MF seemed to like :) ...

Brian Walsh
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