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Hi,
looking for reccomendations for a phono amp, currently testing Luxman e250, not decided about it.Love some attributes,smooth and silky sound but on some recordings treble a little squeaky. Have altered some of the settings with some sucess so may be individual LPs.
Probably not run in yet.....
Anyone any experience with this one or the 200?
Thinking of EAT petit glo or Tom Evans to try a£1500 maximum spend preferebly less....
Thanks
The absolute no brainer within your budget is the Big Bottle mk3. You'd have to spend obscene amounts to better it. Had a Mk1 here and it held its own against a Tron Seven MM & MFA Classic Baby SUT combo (£4.9k rrp), the mk3 is better [emoji15]
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Is that an active or passivee amp? Also is SUT the way to go as easier signalpath? E250 was not good in my system at all whatever the settings with Mm....
The BB Mk3 is active and uses loading plugs for MC, Oli Bigman80 is the guy for this as he involved with development of the BBs. @Iceman16 has recently bought one and couldn't be happier.
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There are a few good phono amps for under £2000
Some of the smaller manufacturers will loan you one in theory.
The Longdog Audio MCJ3 is definitely worth a listen and within budget. Nick Gorham is highly respected and knows a thing or two about phono stages.
Nigel
There's a Lehmann Black Cube SEii for £400 on the Wam at the moment, they're nearly £1k new I believe.
+1 for the Bigbottle 3. It’s absolutely destroyed my Whest 2.2 which is 1500 quid. I doubt there is much if anything out there for 1200 quid that will get close . Absolute bargain
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Now there's a bold statementQuote:
Originally Posted by The Vinyl Adventure
Is Bigman80 on this forum? I tried to DM him but doesn't seem to work
You can catch him on the Wam + pfm (I think)
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He runs the Audio addicts forum . I can DM you his email if you like. Seriously it’s a TOP phonostage . Even at double his asking priceQuote:
Originally Posted by Ubi
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Example LDA as I do his shipping etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by Floyddroid
Ive tried to DM you his details but it won’t allow me to send it to you ?? Have you turned off messaging or just not posted enough for it to activate (5 posts min I think)Quote:
Originally Posted by Ubi
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Thank you.
You now have a DMQuote:
Originally Posted by Ubi
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Another +1 for the BB3Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigbird
Had mine for a few weeks.
Outstanding
I have spent a few days reading all of Ollie's posts in the trade section and had an incognito roam around audio addicts too.
I sent him a message last night and asked about the longevity of the product, after-sales support and ongoing component availability.
Knowing that small manufacturers rarely keep stock of spare parts, this was of grave concern to me.
He responded within minutes, which is a good sign. I left the DM exchange feeling quite confident of there being support, should I need it. Has anyone ever had to send anything bought from Bigbottle back for repair? What was the outcome?
I read a post from Reffc (The Tannoy guy @RFC I think) that he sent his there after his DIY attempt was problematic and when it came back it was better than ever.
But he is a dealer and I am always cautious about their public experiences.
Any feedback of the actual experience of dealing with Bigbottle Audio would be a great help. The Sound Quality can really only be determined by the listener's ear, so whilst it's good to hear the positive reaction to the unit, I am now more interested in the customer experience.
You'll be OK dealing with Oliver, he's keen and young(ish :)) and I'm sure he'll keep stocks of components. He's also mates with Firebottle (Alan) , who should also be able to find any parts needed and seems willing to take on servicing etc. Not sure quite why Oliver doesn't contribute here any more, but I guess his own forum keeps him busy.
Well from personal experience I can only say positive things. First of all Oli is a top chap. Very responsive as you say and I believe him wholeheartedly when he says that if any problems were to arise he would do anything he can to help. I think the only thing that could go wrong really is a component failure of some sort ,which is out of his hands and could happen in any piece of equipment anywhere. The other thing is valve failure. if either of these things happen it’s a cheap fix replacing a resistor or capacitor or whatever it may be. He uses top class parts throughout so I think that would be a rare case. The circuit is tried and tested and has been around a few years now to know wether there would be anything of major concern. The latest MK3 version with FET boards upgrade has really taken this thing on into the big leagues .Quote:
Originally Posted by Ubi
I also know that Alan (mr firebottle and chief designer) would also likely be available to help should you need it as he puts his reputation (which is stellar i might add) on the line with his products . Alan is well know round here for his excellent work and always willing to help out, even with equipment that is not his own. This is the second one of his great phonostages I have owned and I’ve not had a single problem with any.
I sent my first one back for an upgrade 3 years ago now and it’s still going strong . The new one has performed flawlessly for months now. It’s stunning !!!! Seriously stunning
I think the RFC problem was one of personal error and not the phonostage itself if I remember rightly, and he was also initially trying to put the EI transformer in the same box as the phono board which is a big no no and hindered the performance. He sent it back to Oli who sorted it , and it went back performing better or at least as good as the Tron , which is another excellent stage.
Honestly if you want about 3 grands worth of retail performance for about 1200 quid then it’s an absolute no brainer. If you’re handy you can build one yourself for much less but Oli really goes to town with sifting bags and bags of bits for a no compromise ultra matching of all components for perfect channel balance and increased performance.
Worse thing that could happen is something small, insignificant and easily fixable fails sometime down the line (potentially years) and it will cost you postage to send it back and the price of a part to fix. I think the most expensive single thing in it is well under 50 quid. I’ve no doubt oli/alan would be first in the queue but if they both somehow managed to disappear in a puff of smoke one of the many other clever electronics guys around here would help sort it for you for relative peanuts. All you’d have to do is ask.
For me it’s a non issue and the performance was worth the educated gamble I took. I trusted many of the other guys on the forums judgment as they’ve been around the block with these things and EVERY person had glowing reviews of the newest version. Alan personally told me that it would easily see off my Whest and he was right. I knew within ten minutes that my Whest 2.2 would be finding a new home and that is considered by many to be the best sub 2k phono around .
Anyway that’s my 2p worth. I hope you make a decision soon and find a nice suitable phono. Good luck
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Another Bigbottle MK3 owner here. Oliver (Bigman80) is a nice chap and down to earth to deal with. And also Alan (firebottle) a true gentleman.
+1 From the owner of BB Phono Stage in question 😉👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿Quote:
Originally Posted by gjc121