Intro
Contents
Last Sunday we did the first round of the multitest phono pre-amps. In this round we passed the Gold Note PH5, Graham Slee Reflex M, AVID Pellar and MOON 110LP. We write it out for you in this article so you can just sit down, read and relax.
It had to come sometime: a test of some vinyl stuff. Slightly at the insistence of colleagues Yung and Martijn, your author got on the phone to request some pre-amps. But fair is fair … it turned out to be a wonderful day!
The test set-up
We tested the four candidates in combination with an STD 305D (STD = Strathclyde Transcription Devices), deck. The tonearm is an SME 3009 Series II. The cartridge, an ADC TRXII (MM).
The rest of the system is the well-known Alpha Audio reference system.
- TAD Evolution 2 speakers
- Pass Labs XP-12 preamplifier
- Pass Labs X150.8 power amplifier
- Van den Hul Nova speaker cable
- Grimm TPM interlink between the pre-amps and the Pass Labs
- YETI Reference filter for the sources
- Isotek Titan V5 filter for the power amplifier
- YETI mains cabling
The Phono pre-amps are NOT connected to a filter. These are in a solid Supra power strip.
Music
We pulled out three albums for this test:
- Jazzmatazz – Introduction
- Mendelssohn, symphony no.4 “Italian”, part 4 ‘Saltarello (Presto)’. Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Lorin Maazel
- Otis Redding – Otis Blue