Arcam RPhono bargain?

Hi guys,

as the title suggests I'm about to try out an Arcam RPhono with my newly setup LP12 Denon 304 combo. Had a fascinating morning at Cymbiosis (as suggested by many kind folk on here) and Peter worked his magic on my deck. When I heard it with about 10k+ worth of Naim amplification and probably the same for the speakers, I'm convinced that adjustable SS stages may well help me extract the best from the deck and cart.

I've previously used tube phono stages with fixed loading and MM carts, however as the rest of my system is tubes it could end up sounding a little too far that way.


After a bit of research it seems the flexibility of the stage regarding loading/gain combined with the fact it sounds really good with any cartridge suggests its a winner.


Although low output (0.18mV) the 82db adjustable gain should be more then adequate. Apparently anything over 100 Ohms is good with the Denon too so I can adjust to taste.

For comparison I also have a Mark Travis mk1 and an EAR834p clone (tube) stages which I can use with an AD Audio SUT (when its built!).


Of course the only way to be sure is to try these different combo's and see what works but any experiences or suggestions welcome!

Cheers