Renaissance Amplification RP-02 Phono Stage

[Mr. C]

A real natural, open musical phono stage both MM & MC, Great British engineering done well. Very well reviewed and like by the late Tony Bolton of Hifi World and awarded a recommended 5 stars in Hifi Choice by Neville Roberts in 2016. Easy to use dip switches on the back.The unit is in excellent condition. New cost £795

Asking £450

Contact information (https://coherent-systems.co.uk/)

https://coherent-systems.co.uk/images/RP021.jpg

https://coherent-systems.co.uk/images/RP022.jpg

[AJSki2fly]

A real natural, open musical phono stage both MM & MC, Great British engineering done well. Very well reviewed and like by the late Tony Bolton of Hifi World and awarded a recommended 5 stars in Hifi Choice by Neville Roberts in 2016. Easy to use dip switches on the back.The unit is in excellent condition. New cost £795

Asking £450

Contact information (https://coherent-systems.co.uk/)


Interestingly the manufacturer very recently asked my to review the RP-02 Phono Stage, as I have their RA-01 mono-blocks( I did not purchase from them by the way, but they have service them for me) and they also use Wilson Benesch ARC speaker, they wanted some customer feedback with a view to making improvements. This is because they are music lovers themselves and find it hard to get good honest feedback. I have also reviewed one of their pre-amps.

So if anyone is interested I listened to the RP-02 Phono Stage, using 6 tracks that are very well know to me and are a mix of genre and instruments and vocals. My own LFD MMC phono stage is a hybrid built and designed by Richard, which I believe now sells for around £2000, this phono amp is very clean, quite and very musical, well in my set up it is as far as I am concerned and I would not part with it in a hurry.

So how do I rate the RP-02 Phono Stage, well basically across the board the RP-02 Phono Stage scored 91.5%, this was listening to Top end, Mid, Bass, sound stage, Attack/Speed, Separation, Detail and Musicality scoring each from 0 to 10 for each track. I listened and scored, then at the end calculated the overall score. I did the same with my set up. The RP-02 lowest score in any area was 8.5 and highest 9.5 which I consider extremely good. The LFD scores 94% overall, so it is very close.

Sound stage, Attack/Speed, Separation, Detail were the same there was nothing to separate them. Primarily the RP02 was slightly weaker in Top end and Mid rendition IMO, but there was only 0.5-1 point in it across all the tracks, very occasionally bass felt slightly less controlled.

My thoughts were at the time:-

"After listening to several tracks what became clear is that the RP02 tends to emphasise the top end slightly compared to the LFD. This gives an impression of bringing cymbals, top hat, and other high end instruments forward in the mix. I also noticed what I can only describe has a hardening of mid to top, it sounded slighlty more trebly. I realised after listening to Stimela (Hugh Masekala) and the Ravi Shankar tracks that the RP02 presents a slightly more forward treble, and possibly a drop in the mid. To put this into context the differences are small and my system is very revealing. However having said that it is very good and the RP02 gives an extremely good musical rendition."

To put this into context the differences are small and my system is very revealing. I also listened with my Impulse H2's which are horn speakers and found the same.

So IMO considering the the RP02 is easily half the price of the LFD it is an extremely good phono stage, if you are after a good one it could be just the ticket

[Mr. C]

Now £425

[Mr. C]

To clear £395

[Mr. C]

Last drop £375!

[Mr. C]

Now £350 its a very decent phono stage and does make real music.

[AJSki2fly]

Now £350 its a very decent phono stage and does make real music.

I can't believe this has not sold, they are excellent VFM.

[Mr. C]

Neither can I!

BTW Adrian Sean says hello and is happy to discuss audio grounding principles with you.

[Mr. C]

Now sold thank you