Dead thread, but I can add something. Grommes seems to have stopped building these a few years ago. They were quite a success in the local audio shop, but at some point - after long delays - the shop was told they would not be putting together any more.
Unfortunately, only a few were built, my wild guess being 25 to 40. I purchased one new and scored another off eBay, used. A friend I recommended it to found one online some time later. My guess is that about thirteen were built for the original thirteen dealers, and that most of the follow up orders were through the local dealer here.
Either I am going deaf, or they are one of the best sounding amps ever designed. They listed for $995. The audiophile market being what it is, they probably would have been a sales success if they had asked $2000 or more for them. The designer, Alan Kimmel, now works for Modwright and his designs are available there. They are no longer low power and do not cost $995. They do use Alan's Mu Stage, which in a preamp typically has 30dB of gain and absolutely no noise; any distortion is not in the audio band.
The entire integrated PHI-26 was completely noise free, dead silent. If you find one, try the old Russian 6P14P-EB power tubes. They are cheap but quieter than any NOS tubes. The 6N1P tubes are all built by Voskhod, no matter how they are labeled, so don't pay more than a few dollars for them. They are superb. I did get a couple of old Orel 6N1Ps from a dealer in France, non military spec, but they seem to be, like Orel, gone, The PHI sounds great because of very clever design; expensive parts are not necessary, or even useful. Alan's vast expertise also informed the physical point to point layout, making it a major contributor to the absence of any noise. He also specs the transformers for each of his designs, not using any off the shelf units. Simple as these are, you could not build one yourself that would sound as good as the factory pieces.
Edited by Clarkmc2 - 6/25/11 at 11:29pm
