WTD: EAR Yoshino 868PL

[Sophistry]

There is a huge difference between the standard RC valve phono stage in the 834P - EAR's entry level - and the higher end LCR phono stage designs in the 88P (hybrid valve/FET) and 912 (all valve). The one in the 868PL uses the hybrid design in the 88P. If I were you I'd stick out for your original choice.

Thanks, Tom - I will hold out on that basis... Of course, I could go for the 88P and the 868L, but I doubt that is going to be a particularly efficient way to do it when thinking about my now rather frayed purse strings...

I bought an expensive amp one time from Slovenia. I checked the guy out on every possible platform, phoned him multiple times, asked for references, but at the end of the day I was still very nervous about sending the cash. Luckily that one worked out, but for my next big foreign purchase, my EAR 912, I drove to Belgium to pick it up as I didn't want to push my luck. Italy's a bit far for that though.

I was also very nervous, but really did a lot to check the guy out. I genuinely thought about getting on a plane... Anyway, lesson learnt. I hope.

[Sophistry]

Bumping to find an 868PL! Thanks!

(I am also keeping on at the bank who have now passed everything on to their "fraud team")

[martinswimmer]

I bought an expensive amp one time from Slovenia. I checked the guy out on every possible platform, phoned him multiple times, asked for references, but at the end of the day I was still very nervous about sending the cash. Luckily that one worked out, but for my next big foreign purchase, my EAR 912, I drove to Belgium to pick it up as I didn't want to push my luck. Italy's a bit far for that though.

We found Slovenians to be people of high integrity (and the country beautiful) - we even bought a holiday home there ;-). Still, I feel very nervous every time I need to wire money, but did in the past to Belgium, France and Italy and everything went fine.

[Mostec]

Hi, I'm from Ljubljana, Slovenia. And I just order EAR868PL from my seller. I have two monoblosks Audio Innovations 1000 Mk3, speakers are Tannoy Edinburhg HE and Tannoy Autograph Mini. I hope EAR868PL will make my system sing nice.
BTW, Slovenia is the only country with word "LOVE" in its name.

[User211]

Sorry to hear about the scam.

I owned an EAR 868PL. I can't recommend one unless you are looking to calm your system down a bit. I think they are quite lifeless things. I didn't rate the phono stage much either, preferring a solid state Trichord by quite a margin.I ran it with both Teslas and Telefunkens with no long term satisfaction and sold it.

Initially I quite liked the presentation but it didn't last long. It also uses RS components which is not reasonable given the price level.

IMHO you can do a lot better for less.

[jostber]

This is a quite popular item in the used market. This is one of the better offers I found:

https://www.audio-markt.de/market/ea...tie-3478259475

AlternativeAudio also have EAR products sometimes for sale. You might contact them to get some advice/offer:

http://alternativeaudio.co.uk/