Phono Preamp Reviews

Cambridge Audio's Duo is a compact, attractive, lightweight (2.1 Lbs) low priced phono preamplifier that will surprise you with its solid sonic performance as well as its low price. It certainly surprised me! It also features a headphone amplifier so it makes for a great desktop or dorm room accessory.

The back panel features separate MM and MC inputs as well as a balance control, which is somewhat unusual but a nice feature for headphone listening. There's also an IEC jack for the built-in switch mode power supply instead of an outboard "wall-wart" type supply and a ground lug. Cambridge identifies the back panel jacks from both above and below, which is something I wish all manufacturers would do. That allows you to read from above as well as identify what's what even with cables connected. The front panel features a "standby/on" button, a MM/MC selector, the large center-mounted volume control and a 1/4" headphone jack. The (defeatable) standby mode switches off the unit after 20 minutes of non-use.

Cambridge chose to keep things simple by offering no MC loading options, instead fixing it at a sensible 100 ohms, with gain fixed at 60dB. MM load is 47kOhms/100pF with 39dBs of gain. RIAA accuracy is spec'd at± 0.3dB 30Hz-50kHz. Signal to noise ratio is >90dB (MM) and >70dB (MC). The overload margin is a healthy>30dB with recommended MC cartridge output range of .3 to 1mV.. THD+noise 1kHz (20Hz-20kHz) is <0.0025% (MM) and<0.02% (MC). Crosstalk (at 20kHz) is rated at >85dB (MM) and >75dB (MC). There's also a built-in, non-defeatable subsonic filter, (-3dB@12Hz 6dB/octave) which at this price point makes a great of sense considering the likely turntable to be used with such an inexpensive phono preamp. Oh! The price: $299.00.

Careful readers might have guessed something around that amount based upon the MC crosstalk measurement of >75dB as well it being measured at 20kHz but I suspect even the most careful listener would never guess the price based solely upon listening.

The Duo is surprisingly quiet. Even with the volume cranked well beyond normal listening levels hiss was impressively low. I chose to pair the Duo with Rega's exciting new P8 turntable that came with the lower cost ($795) Aria MC cartridge that outputs .35mV with a suggested 100 ohm load. I also chose to play only records I'd never before played including a just unearthed (from my back hall record rack) "1841 Broadway" copy of The Best of John Coltrane (Atlantic SD 1541), Volume 2 of Yuko Mabuchi Trio (Yarlung YAR 71621-161V), which was kind of cheating since I'd already auditioned the sonically stunning Vol. 1 and Chasing the Dragon's live double album Vivaldi In Venice (VALLP008). I played some rock too but I felt I'd get a better idea of the Duo's sonic capabilities using acoustic music.

Simply put: the Duo was a more than pleasant surprise, producing a generously sweet sonic picture that was well-extended from top to bottom, midrange-neutral and that honestly presented all of the acoustic instruments—all in front of a commendably quiet backdrop. Imaging was reasonably solid and soundstage depth was particularly good though for more you'll get wider, deeper and especially taller.

All of the sins committed by this budget phono preamplifier were acts of omission but so evenly accomplished that they were only identifiable when the same records were played through a far more expensive phono preamp and cartridge. Bass was not soft and/or thin and the top end was only slightly brittle and even that was only occasionally. Nothing annoyed and all that was there could be enjoyed.

The headphone amplifier sounded equally sweet and pleasing though the gain only moderate. The more difficult to drive AKG 701s never achieved sonic "lift-off" but the Duo's output well-suited a pair of Grado SR60s. You could give the Duo to your kid and never worry that he'll blow out his ears listening to it, which is an attractive selling point!.

Pair the Duo with a budget 'table and a pair of easy to drive headphones and send it off to your kid's dorm room or use it in your home office or as a starter phono preamp in a budget system and it will keep you satisfied until you are ready to take a big financial leap upward. Until the vinyl resurgence made it possible, I don't think any company would have invested the time, expertise and money to produce a fine performer like this (made in China), package it so attractively and sell it for $299.00.

Without a stack of competitive units on hand I can't say how the Duo compares to other similarly priced phono preamps (with and without a headphone amp) but I can say if you are looking for a budget priced MM/MC phono preamp that includes a headphone amp, I can't imagine anything for $299 could sound much better.