Phono Stage for passive preamp control

I have used the following phono stages successfully with a Bent 102S driving a 100K ohm power amp input:
EAR 834P (modified)
Herron
The Groove
Walker Reference

They can all be had (except Walker) below $2K if you are patient. IO is nice too (I used with a resistive passive)
but gets hot and takes a lot of real-estate. Input tubes tend to need changing a lot too. YMMV.

John, thanks for the input, which may benefit others considering the Bent, or for me in the furuter, for that matter. For now, I am currently awaiting delivery of a custom-designed tube/hybrid phono stage being built for me after consulting with Kevin Carter of K&K Audio. Kevin was involved with the design of the Art Audio Vinyl Reference, and the phono stage I am acquiring has very similar featires. Will be posting my impressions in a few weeks regarding it and the Bent 102 after things are up, running, and settled in (if I can ever decide on IC's). :-0

Hi 4yanx
I hope I am not intruding, but I am much curious to know about your experience with the Illustrious arm ?
I am using the Denon 103 and plan to never move beyong its familly line.
So I am interested about givin it a perfec matching arm.
The OL line seems to increase its mass as arm increase in price. I wonder if the illustrious is overkill for the "lowly" Denon familly.
Classical music, small and large, solo voices and choirs, those are the basic on witch my audio search is based.
It seems, the space Deck, the OL, and the Kevin Carter are all great prospect in my search, althought a bitt of a hight price for my purse, but..what do you thinck ?
Hope to hear from you sometime, cheers Pierre

I should step in here, because I am using an Aesthetix Io (Signature, one power supply) with a Bent Audio NOH (TX-102) passive pre right now.

I've found that with my .2mV output cartridge, I need to run the Io at its top gain setting, a whopping 80 dB, to achieve good dynamics with the NOH in my system. This might not be such an issue with higher-output cartridges.

I should mention that the amp is an Aleph 3 driving VMPS 626Rs.

John Chapman of Bent has been very helpful in troubleshooting this situation. The impedance matches should all be fine (Io output impedance is 300 ohms, Aleph input impedance is 10Kohms).

At this point, I have several options:

1. Add volume controls to the Io and dispense with another pre. I'm sure this would sound the best, but would cost me $3600, which I'm really trying to avoid!

2. Change up my amp. Maybe more headroom would help the dynamics. When I had the Io at 72 dB gain (which theoretically should be fine, delivering over 500 mV at the power amp input), I had to run the Bent passive unit with the volume almost all the way up - which doesn't make for the best performance according to John. So maybe my system is really asking for a more powerful power amp. I've considered Ampzilla 2000s, Son of Ampzilla, the Mcintosh MC402, the MC501 monos and (since I'd really like to stay Class A if possible) the Forte 4A and the Threshold 200.... just not sure if those two give me the extra headroom and oomph I need.

3. Just go back to running the Io directly into the Aleph, no volume control. Incredibly inconvenient... and incredible sound!

Bottom line: putting something between your phono stage and your power amp is always going to detract from the sound. So far, the Bent Audio is peforming the job OK for me, but I'm still missing the clarity, soundstage, presence and dynamics of NOTHING.

Patrick

I thought a "Musical Surroundings Phonoemna" would work good for a Passive. I had talked to Paul Lamm who stated it was the best affordable solution to use with a Passive.

They show up used for an affordable price.

It is on my list of components I want when $$ is not an issue.