Review: Angle Audio phono stage

[legalhippy]

My experience of listening to and reading about the 304 is that it's forte is good tracking, rather than grab-you-by-the-balls musical energy... I know that many people used to and probably still do use a high-output MC into a low output input, preferring the energy and "drive" this gives them.

I'm way out of date on MC pricing these days, as they seem to have shot up - all except the DL103 which is little more than double it's late eighties price. Two low output models I've been impressed with (I used to sell their predecessors) were the Dynavector 17D (neutral to toppy in some systems but good tracking I remember) and the 20 series (high or low output versions - ballsy balance and a good step up for fans of the 10X models I thought). As for high-output MC's, I remain a huge fan of the Sumiko BPS, but dislike the skeletal construction as I'm far too clumsy, and also it's more refined sibling, the Blackbird, which a mate has been using for a few years on his Gyro/Technoarm.

I'm not trying to blindly defend the Angle Audio phono stage, as I don't know it, or the people making it. maybe an email to them with your concerns might come up with a solution. Perhaps a straightforward external power supply might be better, especially if the supply is beefed up a bit?

I don't think I will be getting into replacing the cartridge to match the Angle Audio stage although it may be worth investigating others for the Trichord Dino to have a go with. Something that is a bit more compatible with the loadings.
The DL304 is suited more to subtler music than high energy but is not untalented in that area. It's overall performance takes some beating even in its new price range.

I'm going to persist with the Angle Audio just to see if it does suddenly wake up and get interested in the music.

Thanks for the tips though, I appreciate any help that I can get.

Hmm, what to do. Don't want to keep both phono stages, not worth the aggro

[Peter Stockwell]

I have one , it replaced a clear audio nano. I use it with an Ortofon 2M blue, I like it.

[YNWaN]

What does it look like inside?

[sq225917]

I wonder, who's circuit it uses?

[Skraiduolis]

What does it look like inside?

This is the non-battery version:



I'm not happy with it

[Marco]

Hi Eimantas,

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If so, perhaps you suffer from selective blindness?

Marco.

[jandl100]

I'm still using my Audiophile battery powered Angle Audio stage and am very very happy with it.

No issues at all, and imho it sounds great. I'd take it over the Dino (which I confess I don't like anyway!, at least with its standard PSU) any day. Wonderful, clean, detailed, dynamic, lively sound.

I do wonder if Legal Hippy has a duff one.

[sq225917]

Interesting, single rail power supply using a ring of two ccs, passive riaa with active gain stage. They use their own pcb which is built out for several revisions including a switchable MM/MC variant.

Given that he's not charging the earth that seems quite decent, not many manufacturers stick a choke, however small, on the input of the psu. Doesn't seem unreasonable for the money, I assume its sins are of omission.

[Skraiduolis]

949Person said if I connect those points (as you can see in the 1st pic above), the stage would switch to MC mode. It's interesting if besides the gain, resistance would change to 470R... I think this manual switching also applies to everyone else's preamps?

[legalhippy]

I'm still using my Audiophile battery powered Angle Audio stage and am very very happy with it.

No issues at all, and imho it sounds great. I'd take it over the Dino (which I confess I don't like anyway!, at least with its standard PSU) any day. Wonderful, clean, detailed, dynamic, lively sound.

I do wonder if Legal Hippy has a duff one.

I can confirm that the wall wart that was supplied was definitely a piece of junk making a great deal of noise which detracted from its output. This has now been replaced with a linear power supply which has got rid of most of the airborn noise.

I have been listening a bit more over the last few days and have got more used to how its sounding. I have tried several different recordings of varying styles (Beach Boys - Pet Sounds, All About Eve - Same/Touched by Jesus, Black Sabbath - Paranoid, Bjork - Medulla, Bat for Lashes - Fur and Gold, Radiohead - OK Computer, Specials - Specials and Stiff Little Fingers - Hanx). I chose this selection as they are some of the records that I am most familiar with and know how I like them to sound.

Most came through very well with the Angle unit, very listenable BUT records like the Specials and Beach Boys lacked something with the vocals sounding 'distant' in places.

What I do think that it does well is bass, possibly better than the Dino. Where I think it lacks is on its top end and openness of sound. With the Dino I get a feeling of 'presence' in the music and a great soundstage with all musicians in their place. With the Angle, it is more of a sound coming from over there somewhere - if you know what I mean.

I will be putting together a full comparison with the Dino (with Dino+ PSU and High-Performance connecting power lead) at some point when I get a few hours to sit and compare directly.

It isn't a bad unit by any stretch of the imagination, kicks the cr*p out of the Cambridge and Project units that I tried. For the comparison that I will be putting together I will use a different selection of records to those above and will probably use a couple of records that I have never heard on vinyl before to see which I prefer