OT: Phono Preamps

[motoreyes]

To anybody who cares to take the time. Anyone here have experience w/ phono preamps. I know the higher the S/N ratio the better and that's about it. I was considering this for a cheap & fast solution http://www.guitarcenter.com/BBE-FJB-200X-Phono-Preamp-103540886-i1155721.gc?source=4WDTWXX&urx=1 then my buddy told me he can get me this for $90: http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=PAZPHONO. Any input?

[lyricpoet]

For $50 go with the BBE.

 

The Audio Advisor page read like it was for the same people willing to pay $100 per foot for speaker cable. "Cymbals rang more clearly......"

[motoreyes]

yeah, and can you believe they sell a $250 audio cable conditioner...I didn't know you had to "break-in" cables. Don't know if I could even tell the difference in sound.

[bikehorn]

The Parasound is really nice, especially for the price. It's designed by John Curl, who has designed a lot of audiophile gear that generally costs a lot more than that thing. Not saying that cost absolutely equates to high performance, but only a certain crowd of overpaid slaves to audio magazines.

 

That said, I read a glowing review of that phono stage in The Absolute Sound, and I also came across it in a store. It wasn't hooked up, unfortunately but I did get to talk to the store owner about it, and he said he really liked it and had sold a good number of them since it was introduced. He wasn't a sticky salesman type...more like crazy opinionated old guy who was a retired electrical engineer and now owned an audio shop. Anyway, I was looking at one of those until I bought my NAD 1020 preamp, which has a sweet phono stage built in, so I didn't need to get the Zphono.

 

If you can get it for $90, that's a sweet deal. Don't worry about breaking in cables and all that garbage. If you listen carefully, a good phono stage DOES make a difference, especially if your system is transparent enough to let it really shine through. The cheap and easy solution will sound just like that... cheap and easy.