kully560,
If you check www.lowbeats.dem, they tested the 2M ortofon and they yielded 10 mv. I ran the rPhono at 30db with the 2M black and plenty of gain with the volume conrol at a good level, the 2/3rds range. Otherwise, if you dig deeper into this unit, and look at the circuit board photo you will see some real quality. You will see some WIMA resistors which are high quality, and you will see some VISHAY components which are also superior items, and you will see that the electrolytic capacitors are rated 105C. The normal price point caps are rated 85C, the 105C higher rating with low op temperature is good reason to suspect the unit will last decades. Also, if you pull the part number for the TI board, its cost is $50 on its own. Also, of all the units you were reviewing, the rPhono has the largest power supply, 12vdc and 2amp equals 24watts. All the other power supplies were only 0.5amps. I did not want to do a hard sell, but thd Arcam is at $299 is a real steal. Power Holding Inc is a seller of Keces power supplies from Tiawan, and they have a very nice 12vdc unit for $349. However, I am not sure of the real value. Say what you wish of non-linear power supplies, but Sutherland has used them to great reviews, and if you zoom into some of their board photos and pull the vendor and part number, you will see an industrial item that costs less than $30 but has a mean time between failure (MTBF) of over 500,000 hrs.
If you check www.lowbeats.dem, they tested the 2M ortofon and they yielded 10 mv. I ran the rPhono at 30db with the 2M black and plenty of gain with the volume conrol at a good level, the 2/3rds range. Otherwise, if you dig deeper into this unit, and look at the circuit board photo you will see some real quality. You will see some WIMA resistors which are high quality, and you will see some VISHAY components which are also superior items, and you will see that the electrolytic capacitors are rated 105C. The normal price point caps are rated 85C, the 105C higher rating with low op temperature is good reason to suspect the unit will last decades. Also, if you pull the part number for the TI board, its cost is $50 on its own. Also, of all the units you were reviewing, the rPhono has the largest power supply, 12vdc and 2amp equals 24watts. All the other power supplies were only 0.5amps. I did not want to do a hard sell, but thd Arcam is at $299 is a real steal. Power Holding Inc is a seller of Keces power supplies from Tiawan, and they have a very nice 12vdc unit for $349. However, I am not sure of the real value. Say what you wish of non-linear power supplies, but Sutherland has used them to great reviews, and if you zoom into some of their board photos and pull the vendor and part number, you will see an industrial item that costs less than $30 but has a mean time between failure (MTBF) of over 500,000 hrs.