What's the best tube phonostage you've ever heard?

From the "Trinidad Connection"--Lionel Seemungal /Walter Yip Model circa early 70's--nothing bettered Tube wise so far in my view

Bruce

Caveat YVMV










 
I've only heard one in my system. The Modwright PH 150. It did give me a lust for tubes! I thought that it sounded very nice in my Chicago system. Of course I only have been reacquainting myself with vinyl. I'm open to ideas for phonostages.

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Mike said:
32 tubes is crazy.
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One of my buddies has the Io with its dual external power supplies, along with the similarly configured Callisto linestage and Art Audio tube amps. His system tube count is around 76 last I checked, so when he has tube noise in one channel we have it narrowed down to 38 tubes and work down from there... It's all part of the game he says to have the enjoyment of a full tube system, and a Ferrari isn't easy or inexpensive to maintain either!
 
The new Tenor phono is supposed to be great.

BAT?

VAC?

Also, to SUT or not to SUT?


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I've had 5 over the years, the rhea, rhea sig, arc ref2se, nagra vps, and tron seven ultimate.
Rhea sig was by far the most user friendly with 3 inputs and easily configurable but was a challenge to match quiet tubes.
IMO, the Tron Seven Ultimate was the best for my setup. There is a GT version which is supposed to be even better.
I'd add the VAC, on a shortlist if i was looking at top tube but i've only heard it briefly in show conditions.


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Mike-The "best" tube phono stage has to be tied to the type of cartridge that you use. If you are a low output MC kind of guy, you need a phono stage with lots of gain which means you really need a hybrid tube unit that either uses FETs as the first gain stage or one that uses SUTs. Pure tube high-gain phono preamp=noise. I was never a fan of SUTs until I listened to and bought my Zesto Andros 1.2. Somehow George pulled off the perfect marriage between SUTs and tubes and we get the best of both worlds. Manley and ARC are two companies that go the opposite direction and use FETs although the Steelhead uses SUTs unlike the Chinook.

Mike, something tells me that if you had a B&M store, you would be carrying ARC gear. I think you heard their new phono stage, but I know you have to look for lines you can carry. And anyone that wants to deal with 32 tubes for their phono stage is a masochist no doubt. In one of the earlier iterations of my system, I had well over 50 tubes to care and feed for which is nothing short of a nightmare. I haven't done a count lately, but I'm sure I have over 30 tubes in total in my system now with a few more to add when my Ref 6 arrives this week.
 
I had the tubed Thoress Phono Enhancer in my system for 6 weeks 2 years ago and it was superb......and extremely flexible as it has 5 inputs. amazing build quality point to point wiring and it does allow for different EQ curves.

I've heard the big boy Lamm and Ypsilon (and others) at shows from time to time and at a fraction of the cost of those the Thoress is in that ball park of performance.

and Reinhard is a real gentleman and very passionate about the product and music.

OTOH my favorite (preferred) sounding phono stage is the internal 'two' I have in my new 'solid state' darTZeel NHB-18NS full featured preamp. battery powered, amazing low noise, simple LED toggles for gain and loading adjustments. really a sonic wonder. sounds like music.....not tubes or solid state. forget about expensive power cords and interconnects and real estate for a pair of phono stages. those logistical and cost issues alone can pay much of the freight for the big bad dart pre......if you don't mind waiting a while in line.
 
I'll offer up the Sentec EQ-11. Though, not a fancy design (e.g., captive cord that runs to a wall wart transformer) or even pretty to look at....it sounds fantastic, is a tube rollers dream (requiring a total of four tubes) that responds well to NOS tube changes and also has six differing EQ adjustments for various (mono) record label curves that I've been wanting. Right now I'm running 1950's Swedish Military NOS 5751 Sylvania Triple Mica Black Plate & CBS 7318 tubes in it.

Since it's a MM design, I've got it partnered to an Auditorium A23 SUT to run with the Miyajima Zero or Ortofon Cadenza Bronze and the chain is fantastic with great macro and micro dynamics, wide and natural sound stage and accurate imaging.

The flexibility of the EQ-11's design is great for me but would likely be bettered by the AMR PH-77 Phono feature set or Thoress but both of those cost quite a bit more money. Now that I've lived with the ability to change various LP label EQ curves with the EQ-11 when playing mono records, it's a feature I don't want to be without in the future.

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Mike Lavigne said:
I had the tubed Thoress Phono Enhancer in my system for 6 weeks 2 years ago and it was superb......and extremely flexible as it has 5 inputs. amazing build quality point to point wiring and it does allow for different EQ curves.

I've heard the big boy Lamm and Ypsilon (and others) at shows from time to time and at a fraction of the cost of those the Thoress is in that ball park of performance.

and Reinhard is a real gentleman and very passionate about the product and music.

OTOH my favorite (preferred) sounding phono stage is the internal 'two' I have in my new 'solid state' darTZeel NHB-18NS full featured preamp. battery powered, amazing low noise, simple LED toggles for gain and loading adjustments. really a sonic wonder. sounds like music.....not tubes or solid state. forget about expensive power cords and interconnects and real estate for a pair of phono stages. those logistical and cost issues alone can pay much of the freight for the big bad dart pre......if you don't mind waiting a while in line.
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Thanks Mike. I've always been a fan of Thoress. I'm demoing the DSA PHONO II in my system now. It's solid state. It does some things better than my Air Tight phono/SUT REFERENCE combo, but it also lacks some of the tube magic if you know what I mean. It has better separation, but lacks tonal richness that only tubes can bring. It's all a trade off.
 
mep said:
Mike-The "best" tube phono stage has to be tied to the type of cartridge that you use. If you are a low output MC kind of guy, you need a phono stage with lots of gain which means you really need a hybrid tube unit that either uses FETs as the first gain stage or one that uses SUTs. Pure tube high-gain phono preamp=noise. I was never a fan of SUTs until I listened to and bought my Zesto Andros 1.2. Somehow George pulled off the perfect marriage between SUTs and tubes and we get the best of both worlds. Manley and ARC are two companies that go the opposite direction and use FETs although the Steelhead uses SUTs unlike the Chinook.

Mike, something tells me that if you had a B&M store, you would be carrying ARC gear. I think you heard their new phono stage, but I know you have to look for lines you can carry. And anyone that wants to deal with 32 tubes for their phono stage is a masochist no doubt. In one of the earlier iterations of my system, I had well over 50 tubes to care and feed for which is nothing short of a nightmare. I haven't done a count lately, but I'm sure I have over 30 tubes in total in my system now with a few more to add when my Ref 6 arrives this week.
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Mark - you are correct on all accounts. My cart is ZYX Universe Premium. It does it all, so I don't see myself changing any time soon. The Manley Steelhead is still about as blue chip as you can get. I remain curious about the Tenor phono too. I'm also getting some great suggestions here.

There is nothing wrong with my AT ref combo...I just want to try a few other phono preamps. This DSA is giving me a good taste of something else. It definitely does some things better, others, not as much.
 
CPP said:
Mike have you ever heard this one. Zesto Andros PS1 http://www.zestoaudio.com/andros-1-2/ $4700

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I actually owned it. Great phono. I heard the new 1.2 is quite a nice bump in performance.

I'm going to wait for the Triode Junone Phono. [emoji6]

The other one I'm jonesing for - and I don't know why - is the Viva 300b phono. Wait, I know why, 300b's!


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