Phonostage Bake-Off - 08/07/18 - Penkridge *NOW CONFIRMED*

[Bigman80]

Most enjoyable day, sorry I couldn’t stay till then end, there were some nice phono stages heard today and very nice to put some faces to names, really liked your SP10 Ollie, very very nice mate

Cheers Lee, I'll put you in touch with the main man.

[Jimbo]

Thanks for organising a great bake off Oli and nice to meet some new chaps and some old faces. As with all these events there is interesting stuff to listen too and much of the equipment was new to me.

The day was a game of two halves with the morning taken up with Solid State phono stages and the afternoon valve and valve/hybrid phono stages. In the morning we listened to :

Clones Audio PA1
Russell Technologies phono stage
Trilogy 907
Aquvox
Trichord Dino

In the afternoon valves:

EAR 634
Valve wizard
Digna
Vincent
VAS
Croft
Vivant

Sorry if I missed any and I will upload pics when I get chance.

Outstanding amplifier in the SS group was the Aquvox, almost valve like in sound and lovely open wide soundstage.

Outstanding valve amp was the VAS from Bulgaria I believe, not to be confused with VAS (USA). Stunning.

These were just my impressions. None of the phono stages were bad at all but in general the valve phono stages showed a fairly clean pair of heels to the SS in terms of soundstage and natural open dynamics.

The comparison was a great way of showing up the strengths and weaknesses of all the phono stages and it was noted that the choice of tracks could influence how these differences were perceived.

I am sure others will give a more detailed account and maybe some sort of scoring but I was left only with a strong impression of the two outstanding phono stages I mentioned in each group.

Insightful and very enjoyable day and thanks to all for attending especially those who had driven a long way.

[STD305M]

Hi guys
Thoroughly enjoyed the bakeoff
It was my first and i was not disappointed.

The top phono stage for me was the VAS, by quite some margin.

For those on a more limited budget the Vincent 2 box phono stage was great !!!

Fantastic atmosphere and it was great to meet quite a few
members.
Thanks Oliver, and Alan who didn't disappoint with his multi coloured trousers

Steve...

[Bigman80]

Thanks Jim, Steve.

Yes the Aqvox just stole my decision on the SS designs. Not much in it between that and the Russel tech thing which I really liked too.

The Valve stages is where the day really kicked in for me and the VAS was a killer. So so good.

[Macca]

Of the phono stages I'll say now my favourite was the AQvox that Ken brought along. The Russel Technologies was a close second. I preferred those to any of the valve stages. However we were using Oliver's SP10 for spinning the records and he 's really got that spot on. With zero issues at the front end I thought we were getting a great sound with every single phono stage, really clean and sweet and easy to listen to regardless of what speaker or amps were in use. (There was some swapping about after we finished the 'testing').


The Trichord Dino was impressive too, I think that is quite a bit cheaper than the AQvox and the Russell and it wasn't giving much away to them. I've seen the Dino talked about and recommended on forums for years, now I know why.


Barrington's Valve stage, the Vincent, at £500 just a crazy bargain. gave little away to the big boys. Being Barrington he's tweaked it very slightly so it wasn't quite stock. Still worth a look if you want a new valve phono and don't want to get too spendy.


Also like the dinky little German stage that looked a bit like a mini ORAC with valves poking out, another one that gave a good run for the money.


The VAS stage is built by a bloke on the DIY forum who will knock it up to your spec, you want fancy resistors or whatever, you can have them, sliding scale of price. Separate power supply. Serious performer that one. Lots of weight behind the sound that none of the others quite had except for the Croft Micro 25R with a SUT. There was double bass in one track and both of these stages got it spot on for weight and tone.

The Firebottle Vivant, is a hybrid stage, as is the Wizard, and they were pretty close in presentation, a little smoother than the all valve stages I thought although there was very little in it.

There was an EAR phonstage, can't recall which model, that was the only one I thought 'No, I wouldn't live with that.' I didn't know the make of it until after we finished listening but I've not been keen on any of the EAR kit I've heard, it just strays too far from the sort of presentation I like. Nothing wrong with the quality of it.


There might be a couple I've left out there. There was an awful lot of them.

Great venue as you'll see from the pics, basically the Walmington on Sea village hall off of 'Dad's Army'. I was a bit concerned that a 50w amp and some modest 3 way floorstanders would fill such a massive space but as it turned out you could have had a disco, there was no problem getting to tremendous levels and peaks totally cleanly. The amp was too hot to touch by the end, though.

With the Urei Monitors on it was even better. Amazing dynamics and fast, too. They had John Lee Hooker on while I was out the back having a smoke, it sounded like he was doing a recording session in there.


One issue might be that I was, apparently due to some necessity I was unaware of, exposed to a lot of London Grammar. I think I'll get over it, given some space and time.


Anyway, enough of my yakkin'. Thanks to everyone for turning up and bringing their kit and thanks to Oliver for organising it.

[ijrussell]

Thanks to Oliver and Alan for arranging and hosting. It was a great opportunity to meet up with other like-minded folks and listen to a wide range of phono stages. Sorry I had to leave early but some things are more important than hifi!

I now understand why some of the guys I know who bought Trilogy 907s after hearing mine sold them on fairly quickly - they do not work with direct drive turntables. Today was an important reminder of how important synergy is.

I heard pleasant sounds all day but nothing that really made me go WOW!! I don't think that the room helped; it was a bit echoey but was better with more bodies.

[pankon]

...
The VAS stage is built by a bloke on the DIY forum who will knock it up to your spec, you want fancy resistors or whatever, you can have them, sliding scale of price. Separate power supply. Serious performer that one. Lots of weight behind the sound that none of the others quite had except for the Croft Micro 25R with a SUT. There was double bass in one track and both of these stages got it spot on for weight and tone...

Martin, do you by any chance remember what SUT the Croft phono stage was paired with?

Furthermore, any clue about the VAS phono stage? Order of magnitude? Was it only MC or MM/MC?

Glad that you all enjoyed the bake-off!

Cheers,
Panos

[Bigman80]

"One issue might be that I was, apparently due to some necessity I was unaware of, exposed to a lot of London Grammar. I think I'll get over it, given some space and time."

Yes, a bit of motorhead on prescription should fix it.

[Bigman80]

Martin, do you by any chance remember what SUT the Croft phono stage was paired with?

Furthermore, any clue about the VAS phono stage? Order of magnitude? Was it only MC or MM/MC?

Glad that you all enjoyed the bake-off!

Cheers,
Panos

First paired with the K&K SUT then a Denon HA500 then Audio innovatios SUT. The last combo being my favourite.

MM only that one. As specced by the owner.

[hensa]

This sounds like it was a fantastic day! well done to all involved in putting it together!

Out of interest, was the AQVOX phono run through the current amplifying balanced inputs or the RCA inputs? I use the CEC phono stage which had the the samje designer and there is quite a dramatic improvement in soundstage dimensionality when using the balanced inputs as opposed to the single-ended inputs.