Good thread. I have had an Einstein "The Turntable's Choice "TTC" (balanced version) for half dozen years. Have wanted to have some tube in my phono stage-- the Einstein is SS. But Einstein is very much a tube component mfg. The TTC was built to be as tube-like as they could make it. Excellent phono stage, it was Fremer's reference for many years in the 'oughts.
I was looking to upgrade it, and chose the Ypsilon which as the C3G tube. But the Ypsilon would not play well with my Benz LPS which has internal impedance of 40 ohms, quite high for a low output MC cartridge. I'd have needed a custom SUT, so chose to abandon that transaction. (First time I ever backed out of an A'gon deal.)
Someone suggested I should upgrade my cartridge instead, so after a lot of searching ended up finding an Etsuro Gold on the used market. But the Etsuro, with very low internal impedance, means I'd need to possibly get custom loading plugs for the Einstein. That led me to looking at other phono stages again, and after a visit to Mike Lavigne's place up in Seattle, I decided I'd go with a CS Port phono stage which, interestingly, uses the same C3G tube as the Ypsilon. The CSPort has great synergy with the Etsuro carts, as it is designed for low output MC carts <20ohms. CS Port solders the tube directly to the board, as the tube is supposed to have reliability in excess of 10,000 hours.
So, I will post more once I finally have the CSPort and the Etsuro playing together. But if the Ypsilon uses that tube and it is as highly regarded as it is, and the CSPort also uses it (and I've heard that with my own ears) perhaps there is something magic about that tube and its implementation.
As to saying goodbye to the Einstein... when I was considering something else I included even the ARC Ref10 in my short list, along with the REF3, and the Dag phono stage. I was told going to a tube stage I'd likely miss the speed of the SS stage, and the recommendation was the Dag as it had the speed of SS but gave up little to nothing to tubes. The only coloration of the Einstein, as I heard it reviewed, was a bit of emphasis of the leading edge of transients. Only when I compared it, in my system, to a Doshi phono stage (v3) did I hear the coloration, which is by no means unpleasant, it adds a wee bit of excitement, but it is, after all, a coloration. And I would say it is only heard in a direct comparison. When it came down to it I chose to stick with the Einstein vs. the Doshi as I felt the move, overall, would have been lateral. Give a little here, get a little there, but not a significant upgrade.
So, SS vs tube--it really comes down to implementation. I would argue though at the lower end of the market it is easier to make a good sounding SS stage than tube. This comes from my having owned one of the SimAudio Moon LP3 phono stages when they first came out.
The CSPort is, from what I hear and what I'm told, clearly a great value and can improve greatly with the choice of cables used.
