Hey, good on you… kid’s lucky to have a mentor. Have you considered the Vincent PHO-8? Nice little unit with an outboard power supply. Hifishark turned up a few for sale in the $199-$250 range when I checked just now.
Helping a kid out
So long story short I got neighbor kid into audio and to appreciate listening to music on something other than a cheap Bluetooth speaker. He’s pretty young but a good kid, a hard working honest kid. So far he’s accumulated his old mans Dual turntable that I helped him clean up and installed an Ortofon 2M Blue on it, a nice but older Marantz integrated and a pair of Elac Debut 2.0 B6.2 speakers. I hooked him up with a pair of Kimber 8TC speaker cables I had retired a while ago (lol, probably making them the most expensive part of his system). He’s looking to upgrade and I suggested trying out a dedicated phono stage. I’m assuming his budget is in the $200 range and I told his old man I wouldn’t let him buy something stupid. I had no idea the sheer volume of phono stages in this price range on the market. What would you guys and gals suggest? My knee jerk reaction is Schitt Mani and I read a few good things about a Bellari unit but holy cow the choices are infinite. Maybe something a little higher end but used? Extra points if it can be purchased from Amazon but that’s by no means a deal breaker.
- ...
- 63 posts total
Now having read through the thread I am happy to report your job is much easier than you thought. There really is only one option, the Bottlehead kit. Just reading (studying, and understanding) the description will give the kid a better understanding of hi-fi components than most. It is not that hard, recommended even for first time kit builders and taking no more than an evening or two to build. It does not require any woodworking skills. https://bottlehead.com/product/reduction-1-1-phono-preamplifier-kit/ This kit is a lot simpler than the Dynaco ST400 I built at his age without any help. The Bottlehead kit is way simpler and yet also a much better project and component. In the end he will have spent more than planned but he will have a $1k phono stage for $400 and more importantly he will have acquired an actual asset not a money pit car. Important life skills I should think. If he does this I will not chip in $50 but instead do one better, and send you the Cardas Quad Eutetic rosin core solder to do it right. |
- 63 posts total