Phono Preamp Recommendations
Oct 4, 2005 at 1:18 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 17
Lavalamp

Lavalamp

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I am thinking of upgrading my phono stage, which is a Musical Fidelity X-LPS.

Can anyone recommend a good DIY phonostage?

I've seen the Hagtech Bugle and Cornet, and the DIY Hifi Supply Cole.

Is there anything else out there I have missed?
 
Oct 4, 2005 at 6:51 PM Post #4 of 17
I'm currently strugling with the temptation to build one. My current 'choice' is ESP's Hi-Fi Phono Preamp.

I have some others as well:
http://www.mhennessy.f9.co.uk/preamp/schematics.htm see under phono stage schematic.
http://www.users.nac.net/markowitzgd/phonopre.html

In addition to those projects here's some more interesting (?) reading:
http://home.comcast.net/~walt-jung/w...no_Preamps.pdf
http://www.platenspeler.com/backgrou...kground_2.html

Please, do not ask complex technical question of these ones. I am still pretty green in DIY.
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Oct 4, 2005 at 9:44 PM Post #5 of 17
Quote:

Originally Posted by meat01
I have never heard it, but there is always the bottlehead preamp


This one is on my own To-Do list. A good audio friend with some pretty high end gear built one and said it was amazing for the price. Plus, hey, it's DIY, the kit comes complete, and the Bottlehead forum is phenomenal for support.
 
Oct 5, 2005 at 1:58 PM Post #7 of 17
I had the same predicament (sans the MuFi stage). I finally had narrowed it down to:
  1. Cary
  2. Mapletree
  3. Hagerman Cornet2
  4. Bottlehead
As much as I enjoy my Ear Purist amp, I was not quite sold on the Mapletree. Bottlehead has a great price, but I thought I could get better performance elsewhere (maybe not, I'm not positive). Plus, the constant current source is a $75 upgrade to the Bottlehead, while it's built into the base cornet2. Cary looks fine, but lacked extensive feedback on how people like it. The cornet2's B+ is tube rectified, which is also something I wanted.

After scouring around looking for some reviews, I kept ending up at the cornet2. I just got the last of the parts today for it, except the chassis. I have a nice graybox from lansing, but it's a bit large. I'm thinking perhaps of going the Bottlehead/Welborne style instead. Or I might just built it in a standard aluminum chassis base from hammond and call it industrial. I can always recase it later if it's as good as I am hoping.

I was going to build the bugle first, as a sort of inexpensive phonostage for a reference point. It is supposed to be one of the best SS phonostages you can get for under $600, and costs something like $80 to build. But as good as it is supposed to be, the cornet2 is supposed to be better by a large margin, and actually it seems to be closer to the trumpet than the bugle in performance. $1000 to buy it built, or $350-$600 or so to DIY, depending on how far you go with the parts. I'm going mostly stock, except for subbing the Auricaps as noted my Jim, and using Multicap RTX for the output caps. I also have the Auricaps for that position, for comparison.
 
Oct 5, 2005 at 2:21 PM Post #8 of 17
Quote:

As much as I enjoy my Ear Purist amp, I was not quite sold on the Mapletree. Bottlehead has a great price, but I thought I could get better performance elsewhere (maybe not, I'm not positive). Plus, the constant current source is a $75 upgrade to the Bottlehead, while it's built into the base cornet2. Cary looks fine, but lacked extensive feedback on how people like it. The cornet2's B+ is tube rectified, which is also something I wanted.


If I was to go the kit route I would absolutely go with the Seduction having pretty much followed the history of this phono stage all the way back to the "Groove Thang" which I considered building but never actually got to.If i were to go the pure scratch build DIY route on a "conventional" stage it would be the Doc B/Kurt Strain/Gary Pimm evolutionary version here :

http://home.pacifier.com/~gpimm/phono.htm

I have a version of it (DIY folks,nothing is ever exactly identical
tongue.gif
) and it is a steller performer though when the cost is compared to my jfet Pacific Phono not THAT much better.Maybe just s refining of the sound that unless the rest of your system is up to it wou may never notice.

Today if I were totally phono stage "caught out" I would head in the LCR Phono Stage directionn though this is not for the beginner for various reasons

Which BTW neither is a tube based phono stage unless you are following a good layout plan from a working pattern or are building from a kit.At these gains hum is a real problem and nothing more maddening than trying to track it down and the fix usually just moving a single wire maybe an inch
rolleyes.gif


For the price I like the seduction and may even grab one at some point considering how ridiculously low the price is for what you get and if I don't like it i could always adjust the parameters and use it as a tape head EQ (as is being done by the designer)
 
Oct 5, 2005 at 9:52 PM Post #10 of 17
Thanks all.

The Bottlehead is out because Doc B won't do a 240v version of his kit.

I always fancied the Cornet2, but the Cole from DIY Hifi Supply seems better value as it has an inbuit MC step up transformer.
 
Oct 5, 2005 at 11:45 PM Post #11 of 17
Borbely Audio has some very nice kits, albeit they are a bit spendy. I admire Erno Borbely's work (all the way back to the early Hafler MOSFET poweramps to the latest fully-complementary all-FET designs) and hold them in the highest regard.
 
Oct 6, 2005 at 3:23 AM Post #12 of 17
i remember thinking the kits were pretty pricey when amb first reccomended them to me but when i realised most other phono stage kits were tube and pricier or op amp based, they come with specially designed regulators, and completely discrete borbely designed, they dont seem so bad.

maybe another option could be to see if someone on diyaudio is making pass ono boards? there always seems to be somebody making them over there
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.

trying to figure out something to pair with my p25 that wont break the bank is proving tough. might have to finish my op amp based design so at least i can use parts in the bin!
 
Oct 6, 2005 at 10:21 AM Post #14 of 17
Quote:

Originally Posted by Sigurd Ruschkows
The Bugle is very good sounding for its price. Very simple to assemble, too.

I have made a maxxed out Bugle with huge PP and polystyrene caps and it also has lower noise than the standard Bugle. Better OPamps, too. RIAA accuracy much improved.

Read more at
http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/v...ic.php?t=21339



Sigurd



Sigurd,

That looks great!!
 
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