Phono Preamp Reviews

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Phono Preamp Reviews
Nagra BPS phono preamplifier
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 24, 2009  |  0 comments
This tiny, lightweight, battery-powered jewel is loosely based on Nagra's VPS phono stage that I reviewed in October 2008 but uses bipolar transistors instead of tubes. The bottom of the company's familiar brushed-aluminum case has a grippy rubber material die-cut to spell Nagra. It's intended to keep the preamp from sliding, but stiff cables will have the BPS hanging in the air if you're not careful. The BPS costs $2399.
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Phono Preamp Reviews
Nagra VPS phono preamplifier
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 17, 2008  |  0 comments
Not that many years ago, it seems, every sound crew in Hollywood and around the world recorded production sound using a compact, open-reel analog tape recorder made by Nagra. The first iteration of the Swiss-made machine appeared in the early 1950s. Shortly thereafter, with the addition of an inaudible recorded tone that allowed easy syncing to picture, the Nagra recorder became the industry standard, and remained so through the 1980s. To this day, Nagra's line of audio products retains the look of those early recorders.
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Phono Preamp Reviews
Parasound Halo JC 3 phono preamplifier
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 24, 2011  |  1 comments
According to Parasound's founder and CEO, Richard Schram, the Halo JC 3 began as a phono-preamp retrofit for the JC 2 line stage, with separate small circuit boards for each channel. The smaller the board, the better, Schram says, so as to attract less noise than do larger boards, whose many copper traces can act as antennas.
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Phono Preamp Reviews
Parasound Z Phono XRM MM/MC Phono Preamp Offers A lot For $595
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 27, 2020  |  10 comments
Parasound’s $595 ZPhono XRM is a compact, versatile MM/MC phono preamplifier that offers flexibility and features not usually found at this price point including gold-plated balanced XLR outputs (and gold-plated single-ended RCA outputs), a mono switch, an 18dB/octave rumble filter and for its MC input, continuously variable loading from 50ohms to 1050ohms.

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Phono Preamp Reviews
Parasound's New JC3+ MM/MC Phono Preamplifier Offers Feature and Sound Refinement
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 16, 2014  |  22 comments
Parasound's new $2995 JC3+ is a significantly upgraded version of the already high performance original JC3 phono preamplifier, though outwardly it looks identical to the handsome original.
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Phono Preamp Reviews
Pass Aleph Ono phono preamplifier
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 06, 2005  |  0 comments
If compact discs are so damned dynamic and vinyl is so dynamically limited, why do they sound just the opposite? Why do LPs sound so "live," so explosive, so "there," and CDs so dead? Even the best CDs usually sink to second-rate when you switch to their vinyl versions. I've heard it, you've heard it. Only those in deep denial, those who refuse to listen, don't. They'd rather read the published specs and consider the actual listening some kind of mass delusion among Luddite LP fans.
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Phono Preamp Reviews
Pathos In The Groove MM/MC Phono Preamp
Ken Micallef  |  Feb 21, 2023  |  13 comments

We’re always on the lookout for good — if not certainly great — phono preamps to get our hands on to review here for the AnalogPlanet faithful, and Pathos’ In The Groove MM/MC phono preamp certainly fits the bill. Read Ken Micallef’s detailed review to see if this well-crafted solid-state phono stage is right for you. . .

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Phono Preamp Reviews
Phono Preamplifier Voting Results and Files Identified!
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 15, 2014  |  39 comments
On January 2nd analogplanet.com posted five 96/24 bit files, each containing the same minute’s worth of John Williams’ “Liberty Fanfare” performed by the National Symphonic Winds conducted by Lowell Graham excerpted from the album Winds of War and Peace originally issued in 1988 on Wilson Audio Specialties Records (W-8823) and used with permission.

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Phono Preamp Reviews
Precision Transducer Engineering MMMC Phono Preamplifier
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 13, 2012  |  0 comments
The phono preamplifiers reviewed this month are both affordable ($400–$1960) and highly accomplished, and the most expensive of them offers versatility that's unprecedented in my experience. Three of them are designed to be used only with moving-magnet, moving-iron, and high-output moving-coil cartridges, so I installed Shure's V15VxMR cartridge in VPI's Classic 3 turntable and listened in MM mode to all of them, beginning with the least expensive.
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Phono Preamp Reviews
Pro-Ject's Tube Box S2 MM/MC Phono Preamp Beats the Built In
Caleb Attaway  |  Mar 13, 2020  |  10 comments
Pro-Ject Audio Systems is undoubtedly the king of budget friendly, entry-level, high performance analog components. A definite go-to for sub $1000 turntables and bang for your buck phono preamps. Founded in 1991 by Heinz Lichtenegger during the evil reign of the CD, they fought their way to vinyl success and made it!
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Phono Preamp Reviews
Pro-Ject's Versatile DS2 USB MM/MC Phono Pre Sounds Good And Digitizes Too
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 24, 2019  |  6 comments
Pro-Ject’s DS2 USB combines in one chassis a versatile MM/MC phono preamplifier and a high resolution A/D converter capable of digitizing at up to 192/24 bit PCM or 128 DSD (A/K/A “double DSD”). It’s a feature-packed unit that includes 2 independently adjustable phono inputs and a line input and both USB and optical TOSlink digital outputs as well as an analog output. An outboard 18V “Wall Wart” powers it.

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Phono Preamp Reviews
Pro-Ject’s MM/MC Phono Box RS Is A Chronic Overachiever
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 23, 2016  |  32 comments
You might be skeptical about electronics products from a company best known for its mechanical ones but Pro-Ject’s extensive Box-Design electronics series has gotten rave reviews over the past few years. The company has assembled a skilled electronics team to design and build a full electronics line in both the analog and digital domains.

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Phono Preamp Reviews
PS Audio's NuWave DSD/PCM Phono Converter Reviewed
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 29, 2013  |  8 comments
This is a review of the NuWave Phono Converter's phono preamp section only. A review of the double DSD based A/D converter will follow soon.

Multipurpose products like PS Audio’s snazzy new NuWave Phono Converter offer a mix of great possibilities and possible compromises. In one sleek box you have a capable and versatile MM/MC phono preamplifier and an analog to digital converter through which you can conveniently digitize your vinyl—as well as any analog input you feed it— at up to double DSD resolution. All for $1895.

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Phono Preamp Reviews
pure audio "vinyl" Phono Preamplifier From New Zealand
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 28, 2016  |  8 comments
New Zealand-based pure audio is a partnership between former Plinius Audio co-owner and chief electronics designer Gary Morrison and industrial designer Ross Stevens.

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Phono Preamp ReviewsVinyl Digitizing Tips
Pure Vinyl LP recording & editing software
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 19, 2010  |  10 comments
As long as you're spinning an LP for your listening pleasure, and if digitizing it at a resolution of 24-bit/192kHz is transparent to the analog source, why not record and store the LP on your computer at that high sampling rate for future convenient playback via iTunes or for iPod use, or for burning to CD-R? And, while you're at it, why not record the LP unequalized and apply the RIAA curve in the digital domain, where you're not dependent on capacitors and resistors that are imprecise to begin with, and can drift over time? With no drift of phase or value, the virtual filter's results should be better than with any analog filter. And in the digital domain, you can program in any curve known, and select it at the click of a mouse. Aside from the sweat equity invested in programming it in the first place, it wouldn't add a penny to the program's cost.
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