What is the best phono stage you have heard?

I have had the opportunity to try a huge amount of phono stages in my time, but I have to say I had a listen to Keiths (coopee's) system and had a good long listen to the turntable and phono set up. It was the best I have heard. I borrowed the phono stage and plugged it in when I got back and I was amazed, Fast neutral Detailed and musical, everything I want out of a phono stage. I havn't heard the Lyra yet but I will soon.

What's the best you have heard?

 

Without a shadow of doubt, the Azur 640p. Makes anything under £20k seem broken.

 

Its the 640 P that I have in my system. After listening precisely to none. I bought it after researching others and reading users comments. I live too far from HiFi shops to listen to any hardware!. Anyway I am delighted with the product. My CDs are gathering dust now as I mostly listen to my vinyl collection. Shame on me for giving so many LPs away in the mid eighties! I dont however believe that the 640P is the last word on Phono Pre Amps but what it does it does really well and must be a real bargain at its price point. Although I have nothing other than integrated amps with which to compare it with, it beats all that I've tried by a huge margin. In my system it simply makes the music more enjoyable

 

I was joking (its saturday night*), have never even heard it. I'm sure its really great for the money

 

DPA 200DSP - mid-price, not made any more, very few around. Well worth listening to.
From my experience (direct comparisons to see if it was worth upgrading / swapping) bettered stages from Trichord (with power supply). Iso (?) sounded similar to an EAR stage I liked very much.

 

Not having heard any of the über-priced phono stages, I am not in much of a position to answer this question; however not so long ago I moved from Trichord Dino/Dino+ to a PS Audio GCPH. That was a significant leap forwards in technical HiFi terms as well as musicality. A recent change of speakers to Avalon NP2.0s shocked me in that vinyl performance was way better than I had thought. I am getting fantastic reproduction from vinyl now, but would never have known it had I not changed the speakers. The Dino is probably better than I thought, too. So, to attempt to answer the question , it very much depends on the balance of the system and the capabilities of the other parts of that system. Maybe I should try the Cambridge 640P out of curiosity, but I somehow doubt that it would punch that far above its modest price point.

The phono stage that I would like to try above all others is the Lyngdorf Millennium ADC, which applies a range of RIAA and other correction curves in the digital domain, and outputs the result as 24bit 96kHz PCM. Unfortunately I'm unlikely to be able to afford one!

 

RIAA deviations are very common in phono stages - look at the independent measurements.

Often this is what you are hearing when you compare stages, not any inherent superiority of one circuit/design over another.

If you try a stage and find it exceptionally clean and tight in the bass, examine the LF roll-off and chances are it will be rolling quite early. Try a stage which astounds you with stunning vocal projection and look for a rise in the presence band.

Obviously we need to filter out poor product with high noise, distortion and gross response errors.

As for the best I've heard, well that's the one I currently use which is a heavily DIY rebuilt version of a commercial stage, and no it isn't the 640P

 

For £60 you owe it to yourself to try it.
I took mine up to TonyL recently and we compared it to his Dynavector P100 which IIRC sold for £1k+.
The Dyn won by a miniscule margin and the differences were in tonal balance which as I've said could just be down to the RIAA curve.

It clearly isn't the best thing out there but it sits comfortably alongside some very well regarded stages and costs peanuts.

 

Goddamit, I apologise for mentioning the 640p, Hifi Addict.

 

I've got one sitting here in a box if anyone wants it for £40. My opinion of it was as usual at odds to the relentless forum hype.

 

Flog it to Shuggie.

 

The 640p always sounds like what it is, an op amp stage. It's not the last word in anything except value for money.

That said i'm more than happy with mine including mods and experience says i'd have to head north of £500 to get any real improvement.

 

Depends how those OP amps are used and the skill of the designer. The 640 is a discrete/OA hybrid.

The OP amp is just a circuit on a chip and some are better than others, just as some discrete SS and tube circuits are.

The final arbiter of goodness comes down to what the thing does on the test bench which directly effects how it sounds.
What does a 640P not do that, for example, a Dino+ does?

 

Rob,

I know you are a fan of the design but honestly I wouldn't bother with vinyl if I were limited to the 640 - there is a ton of information on my vinyl that it was incapable of recovering.

 

I can only relay my own experience with it and that of comparing it with other stages. TBH I couldn't detect any real loss of information up against far more costly stages. It's a little less airy than the tube WAD and a touch leaner at the bottom than the DV P100. A Dino+ and Stageline/Hicap were fairly beaten by it though in every way.
For £60 it's no great shakes for people to try one - you can even return it for a refund if you think it really is crap.

 

Absolutely Mr Holt -well said.
There's too much 'high handed' dismissal of good products which come in at a budget price!

 

I was very impressed with the 640P when Rob brought it around, it was clear, clean and punchy with my Space / Hadcock / DL-110 (MM setting). In comparison to my DV P100 I felt it lacked some weight, refinement and musical flow, the DV just made more sense, but the 640P is utterly astounding value for money – it could financially enable a far better cart choice which would more than tip the balance, i.e. one could have a DV P75 and a DL-110 or a 640P and an Lyra Dorian.

Tony.

 

Tony, out of interest, have you heard Robs AT cart? Just wondered since you mentioned Lyra and having heard Robs system with both I am extremely impressed with the AT. It makes vinyl sound better than I thought it could I'd be interested in what you think since you like the Denon.

 

No, I've never heard an AT33, it sounds interesting as Rob says it's a lot warmer than most ATs (I tend to find ATs too bright). I was just using the Dorian as a price example, it could just as well have been a DV17, a 500 quid Ortofon or whatever.

Tony.

 

I don't think SM is dismissive of 'budget' products, I had a DV P75 and it was a perfectly adequate phono, but it doesn't have the resolution or the dynamics of my Allnic, then again P75, £400 Allnic 1500 £2.5k, diminishing returns kicks in hard.