When I looked in the Marantz 7C and 7T, the phono section looked like what I see in the SPL. The Engineer for the RIAA eq must be familiar with some of the best of the old school and the discreet. The point to point wiring I have not seen since the Paragon 10 (1 of 50 made) and they used the step up transformer to feed the phono section but all was done point to point. The sound with the Yamaha B1, Thorens, Denon 103 and Koss model 1 kept us up all night. Thank you for your information.
Thanks once again for another fascinating review. I just want to pick up on the point you made about this phono preamp being "very powerful", by which I understand you to mean that the gain output is very high. And to ameliorate this, you had to turn the volume knob on your preamp down. This brings me to the subject of "gain structuring" which most audiophiles and amplifier manufacturers don't understand. Sources are recorded at very different levels; some much louder than others. The job of the preamplifier is to equalise all of this - to push low-level recordings up to an optimal level and prevent the output from going into distortion with high-level recordings. The optimum playing level is of course 0db (with minor peaks for the loudest passages) - which is why VU meters are so important. After this has been achieved, one needs to get the power amplifier to play at our desired SPL. This why it is absolutely imperative for power amplifiers to have attenuators. The problem today is that you can hardly find any decent amplifier with attenuators (except pro-audio amplifiers like the Crowns). Previously, these were much more commonplace. I used to have an NAD with attenuators, and other popular manufacturers like Rotel also had such amplifiers. One way to deal with this problem with sources today is to have attenuators on the source components (phono preamp or DACs) so that you can structure the gain by ensuring that the optimum output level is sent to your preamp stage, and then use the single volume control (on the preamp) to do what the attenuators on old-style amplifiers were meant to accomplish. On this score, the SPL's gain options (of either -10dB or +4dB) is way too limiting. One option for users wanting to use the phono-preamp to structure the gain is the Puffin Phono DSP which I have been using for the past 6 months, and works amazingly well.
Thanks for explaining that. I mean literally more powerful since it goes from the standard 30v to 120v of operating voltage. That is extremely powerful! That +10 and -4 is just the tip of the iceberg. You are not considering the starting point of the amplification which is very high! That is why I called it a muscular phono preamp.
@@anadialog Thanks. I understand this. But what is the net effect on the sonic output? I imagine that with such a high voltage - like having a large transformer - you get a much beefier and rich sound. That would be fantastic but you would still need to monitor the signal output to make sure it does not clip or over-saturate (and therefore distort) - hence my suggestion for using good VU meters.
balanced is overrated snd they probably know this. it doesn’t affect sound. unless you have some crazy long cable runs then sure balanced can be very useful.
Good review...you must understand Gain Structure, something that is often missed with HiFi equipment. I'm not in vinyl since 1987 (being shocked about the mastering process) but I was impressed by this SPL Phonos. You got so much gain, to extract all the groove informations.
Thank you for all these very useful details. I've had an SPL phonos preamp for a few years and I really like its precision and amplitude, but I would like to get less aggressiveness, especially in the high frequencies. Do you have any suggestions for MM cartridges that could solve this problem?
1:00 Seriously? I didn't know that! I have one too, bought it about two years ago and was almost zero reviews on it, in contrast to the Phonitor 2, that was everywhere in the headphone amp reviews. I have to look that up! 3:00 The best thing about these loading settings is that it has an "OFF" setting for MM carts, plenty preamps lack that. I regularly use that setting with AT cartridges. 5:30 Agreed. MC benefits a lot by all that power/gain available. For MM carts, it's sometimes even too much gain IMO, when a cartridge has an output voltage over 6 or 7mV. I always use -10dB for MM carts. 6:38 That really depends on the system topology... If you have a dedicated preamp between your poweramp and phono preamp, speaker sensitivity isn't really relevant to that - it's the preamp input sensitivity that matters. 9:33 I found that you should never turn it off on the back, but just use the standby switch on the front. That way it's "burnt in" in notime. The reason that this preamp changes quite a bit during burn in is mainly because of the polystyrene caps used for the RIAA filter. Those slightly change in chemical composition when voltage is applied. Because there are so many of those caps, the slight change makes an audible difference. The only two issues I found in the past two years are the ground lug on the back that's a bit awkward to use with spades and the metal top cover. When tapped with a fingertip, the metal top plate starts to ring like a bell (or like a cheap turntable platter). Nice review, concise but sufficiently covering the essence of what the Phonos is all about 👍
Hey, very interesting ! I don't know if you had the chance to test the MOON 310lp? It completely sublimated my sound! It's in the same price range if you have the chance to try it. I would like to share with you on this topic and know your opinion on this baby. Take care
I did that because I could here that the sound was changing. In other cases it happens much more quickly, very strange. I know a lot of people think this is BS but I am sure of what I am hearing and not hearing.
Ciao, innanzitutto complimenti per il tuo canale. Ti ho scoperto da poco ma un po’ alla volta sto recuperando gustandomi i tuoi video ogni giorno. Chiedo un parere. Non essendo in grado di valutare la qualità del pre incluso nel mio ampli integrato (ti scrivo le caratteristiche sotto..) pensi sia il caso di acquistare un pre-phono oppure posso iniziare con quello dell’ampli? Grazie mille per il tuo tempo e per i tuoi contributi. Davvero complimenti! Ampli Macintosh MA352 uscita Phono MM: Impedenza: 48 kohm / 70 pF (imp. per 50 pF). Sensibilità: 2,4 mV per 200 W su 8 ohm. Tensione di rumore pesata “A” riportata all’ingres- so: terminato su 600 ohm, 0,23 μV. Rapporto segnale/rumore pesato “A”: terminato su 600 ohm, 82,3 dB Ho un Giradischi ProJect: Xtension 9 evolution senza testina, dovrei acquistarne una MM.
Ciao Lanfranco, grazie mille! Ti avevo risposto anche altrove. Come ti dicevo, con quella meraviglia di amplificatore stai già messo benone! Mi sembra un fenomenale punto di partenza, complimenti!
Dipende da quanto vuoi spendere ad ogni modo non ti preoccupare e scegli quello che ti piace e ti attira di più. Le MM sono facili da pilotare e abbinare. Una buona ortofon, soundsmith oppure Hana sono ad esempio delle ottime scelte.
Was wanting to buy this forever, no reviews, how does this compare to the Schiit Mani Phono ? which is so highly rated and beats out pre amps that cost 10 times as much ?
2 completely different leagues. The Mani is great but it is not comparable to the quality of this bad boy! The Mani is outstanding for its low price, which usually is much worse at that price range.
@@anadialog Thanks, yes 2 different leagues, but sometimes even the big boys do not sound right, and its hard without audio example, its $2500 in Canada so it would have to be a solid guarantee purchase for me, thanks a million for the reply,
Hello good day. I love your channel, I identify myself a lot, the information is accurate and very well explained. My problem is the access to materials and equipment, things are not very good here in Brazil. Devalued currency and mismanagement ending all perspectives of the population. A big hug, Caio. Sorry about my English...
Thank you so much Caio. I know that you are going through a lot of problems. I truly hope things will be better in the future for you all. Brazil is a great country and I can't wait to go and visit it one day. Stay safe.
Would it be total heresy to use this apparent powerhouse as the only amp in a system with with efficient speakers? FYI Doug Self has a preamp kit available in various forms from bare PCB (plus instructions) to a fully populated board and case (for £875). Link: tinyurl.com/y28mzeua
For the money the Black Cube is simply amazing. Expense aside, the SPL had better sonics. Very very powerful though. If you need to digitalize for example I would not recommend it.
Why no sense? Because of the high gain? Yes, I do have a volume knob but trust me this baby is so powerful you almost can't regulate it...too low or too high
You can find all your comments in the related videos. I don't answer always if I don't have much to add or some times I am simply overwhelmed by the quantity of comments and questions.
Sounds like it's over priced. And wouldn't be as good as Ray Samuels f 117 Nighthawk don't believe, or the dynavector p75 MK4 autoloading and is very good for low output cartridges works by different topology amplifiers amps not volts what most phono stages do and is only $800 both of them same price.
![ANA[DIA]LOG](http://yt3.ggpht.com/50CpmGNilS8aoMlarZVhI_GxRDoZdbj4ZgwCMZXg-Rq2PrEvCytlE6RVyLUrNY-rwE_sAlZ1Zw=s48-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj)
I’m a BIG FAN of SPL
2k dollar phono stage ! In my world I’m sure it’s a dream:)
When I looked in the Marantz 7C and 7T, the phono section looked like what I see in the SPL. The Engineer for the RIAA eq must be familiar with some of the best of the old school and the discreet. The point to point wiring I have not seen since the Paragon 10 (1 of 50 made) and they used the step up transformer to feed the phono section but all was done point to point. The sound with the Yamaha B1, Thorens, Denon 103 and Koss model 1 kept us up all night.
Thank you for your information.
Thanks once again for another fascinating review. I just want to pick up on the point you made about this phono preamp being "very powerful", by which I understand you to mean that the gain output is very high. And to ameliorate this, you had to turn the volume knob on your preamp down.
This brings me to the subject of "gain structuring" which most audiophiles and amplifier manufacturers don't understand. Sources are recorded at very different levels; some much louder than others. The job of the preamplifier is to equalise all of this - to push low-level recordings up to an optimal level and prevent the output from going into distortion with high-level recordings. The optimum playing level is of course 0db (with minor peaks for the loudest passages) - which is why VU meters are so important. After this has been achieved, one needs to get the power amplifier to play at our desired SPL. This why it is absolutely imperative for power amplifiers to have attenuators.
The problem today is that you can hardly find any decent amplifier with attenuators (except pro-audio amplifiers like the Crowns). Previously, these were much more commonplace. I used to have an NAD with attenuators, and other popular manufacturers like Rotel also had such amplifiers.
One way to deal with this problem with sources today is to have attenuators on the source components (phono preamp or DACs) so that you can structure the gain by ensuring that the optimum output level is sent to your preamp stage, and then use the single volume control (on the preamp) to do what the attenuators on old-style amplifiers were meant to accomplish.
On this score, the SPL's gain options (of either -10dB or +4dB) is way too limiting. One option for users wanting to use the phono-preamp to structure the gain is the Puffin Phono DSP which I have been using for the past 6 months, and works amazingly well.
Thanks for explaining that. I mean literally more powerful since it goes from the standard 30v to 120v of operating voltage. That is extremely powerful!
That +10 and -4 is just the tip of the iceberg. You are not considering the starting point of the amplification which is very high! That is why I called it a muscular phono preamp.
@@anadialog Thanks. I understand this. But what is the net effect on the sonic output? I imagine that with such a high voltage - like having a large transformer - you get a much beefier and rich sound. That would be fantastic but you would still need to monitor the signal output to make sure it does not clip or over-saturate (and therefore distort) - hence my suggestion for using good VU meters.
I agree, and in fact this baby is a little too powerful for me!
@@anadialog Understand. Have you tried the Puffin Phono DSP? It's a really amazing phono preamp.
I haven't but it says that it it eliminates pops and clicks, that is done with a filter and I hate filtering
Cool RIAA amp, but if it is for professional use why no balanced in and outputs?
That is a very good question! Probably because they have a pro brand but wanted to sell it to everyone
balanced is overrated snd they probably know this. it doesn’t affect sound. unless you have some crazy long cable runs then sure balanced can be very useful.
loved your beard man!
Thx! It's gone!
New look for you. You looks like a Vikings.
😂
Good review...you must understand Gain Structure, something that is often missed with HiFi equipment.
I'm not in vinyl since 1987 (being shocked about the mastering process) but I was impressed by this SPL Phonos.
You got so much gain, to extract all the groove informations.
any chance reviewing spl elector? right now i'm having difficulty choosing between that and benchmark la4
My desire to see that in tube technic. It is not complicated. I can make those, if there is enough of interest. Excellent video, as always.
Best regarDS FROM MYSOUNDBOOK - I LIKE SPL - ITS A GOOD A VERY PRODUKT
Thank you for all these very useful details. I've had an SPL phonos preamp for a few years and I really like its precision and amplitude, but I would like to get less aggressiveness, especially in the high frequencies. Do you have any suggestions for MM cartridges that could solve this problem?
1:00 Seriously? I didn't know that! I have one too, bought it about two years ago and was almost zero reviews on it, in contrast to the Phonitor 2, that was everywhere in the headphone amp reviews. I have to look that up!
3:00 The best thing about these loading settings is that it has an "OFF" setting for MM carts, plenty preamps lack that. I regularly use that setting with AT cartridges.
5:30 Agreed. MC benefits a lot by all that power/gain available. For MM carts, it's sometimes even too much gain IMO, when a cartridge has an output voltage over 6 or 7mV. I always use -10dB for MM carts.
6:38 That really depends on the system topology... If you have a dedicated preamp between your poweramp and phono preamp, speaker sensitivity isn't really relevant to that - it's the preamp input sensitivity that matters.
9:33 I found that you should never turn it off on the back, but just use the standby switch on the front. That way it's "burnt in" in notime. The reason that this preamp changes quite a bit during burn in is mainly because of the polystyrene caps used for the RIAA filter. Those slightly change in chemical composition when voltage is applied. Because there are so many of those caps, the slight change makes an audible difference.
The only two issues I found in the past two years are the ground lug on the back that's a bit awkward to use with spades and the metal top cover.
When tapped with a fingertip, the metal top plate starts to ring like a bell (or like a cheap turntable platter).
Nice review, concise but sufficiently covering the essence of what the Phonos is all about 👍
How would you rate this one against the PS Audio stellar you also reviewed? Thank you!
The SPL in my opinion is useful only when you really need a lot of gain, otherwise the Stellar is more refined and open.
@@anadialog Thank you!!!
10:40 it took two months to burn in their phonitor x for me as well. Im still on the fence with this phono preamp.. seems too early to get it now..
Hey, very interesting !
I don't know if you had the chance to test the MOON 310lp?
It completely sublimated my sound! It's in the same price range if you have the chance to try it.
I would like to share with you on this topic and know your opinion on this baby.
Take care
Sounds really good. Man, that’s a lot of patience waiting a couple months for it to come around with a good sound!
I did that because I could here that the sound was changing. In other cases it happens much more quickly, very strange. I know a lot of people think this is BS but I am sure of what I am hearing and not hearing.
Ciao, innanzitutto complimenti per il tuo canale. Ti ho scoperto da poco ma un po’ alla volta sto recuperando gustandomi i tuoi video ogni giorno.
Chiedo un parere.
Non essendo in grado di valutare la qualità del pre incluso nel mio ampli integrato (ti scrivo le caratteristiche sotto..) pensi sia il caso di acquistare un pre-phono oppure posso iniziare con quello dell’ampli? Grazie mille per il tuo tempo e per i tuoi contributi. Davvero complimenti!
Ampli Macintosh MA352 uscita Phono MM: Impedenza: 48 kohm / 70 pF (imp. per 50 pF). Sensibilità: 2,4 mV per
200 W su 8 ohm. Tensione di rumore pesata “A” riportata all’ingres- so: terminato su 600 ohm, 0,23 μV. Rapporto segnale/rumore pesato “A”: terminato su 600 ohm, 82,3 dB
Ho un Giradischi ProJect:
Xtension 9 evolution senza testina, dovrei acquistarne una MM.
Ciao Lanfranco, grazie mille! Ti avevo risposto anche altrove. Come ti dicevo, con quella meraviglia di amplificatore stai già messo benone! Mi sembra un fenomenale punto di partenza, complimenti!
@@anadialog grazie mille! I only need the MM cartridge, I will take a look at your video about the cartridges.
@@anadialog hallo Guido, please do you have some advice for a cartridge based on my phono exit? Thank you very much.
Dipende da quanto vuoi spendere ad ogni modo non ti preoccupare e scegli quello che ti piace e ti attira di più. Le MM sono facili da pilotare e abbinare. Una buona ortofon, soundsmith oppure Hana sono ad esempio delle ottime scelte.
Would this help with ; reel 2 reel. .?
$1800 USA is 28% more for me. How did you burn it in?
Just using it...a lot!
Was wanting to buy this forever, no reviews, how does this compare to the Schiit Mani Phono ? which is so highly rated and beats out pre amps that cost 10 times as much ?
2 completely different leagues. The Mani is great but it is not comparable to the quality of this bad boy! The Mani is outstanding for its low price, which usually is much worse at that price range.
@@anadialog Thanks, yes 2 different leagues, but sometimes even the big boys do not sound right, and its hard without audio example, its $2500 in Canada so it would have to be a solid guarantee purchase for me, thanks a million for the reply,
For the price i would expect there to be balanced connections.
Hello good day. I love your channel, I identify myself a lot, the information is accurate and very well explained.
My problem is the access to materials and equipment, things are not very good here in Brazil.
Devalued currency and mismanagement ending all perspectives of the population.
A big hug,
Caio.
Sorry about my English...
Thank you so much Caio. I know that you are going through a lot of problems. I truly hope things will be better in the future for you all. Brazil is a great country and I can't wait to go and visit it one day.
Stay safe.
Why not try the Pro-Ject DS3B (XLR in and out) fully balanced and till +65Db on MC (symmetrical + 6Db)…😎
Would it be total heresy to use this apparent powerhouse as the only amp in a system with with efficient speakers? FYI Doug Self has a preamp kit available in various forms from bare PCB (plus instructions) to a fully populated board and case (for £875).
Link: tinyurl.com/y28mzeua
Simple dimple
I remember have seen you with a Lehmann audio black cube se (with external power). In your opinion, how it compares with SPL?
For the money the Black Cube is simply amazing. Expense aside, the SPL had better sonics. Very very powerful though. If you need to digitalize for example I would not recommend it.
WOW!!!!! - No new Bushranger beard alert - come on 😂
Хорошая техника.
You helped my with my Manley Steelhead. I just received those beers. If you DM or however send me address I will put some beer in the mail.
What's your name?
Guido!
I'm sorry but the information you give on the recording make absolutely no sense. Do you have a volume control on your preamp or recording unit?
Why no sense? Because of the high gain? Yes, I do have a volume knob but trust me this baby is so powerful you almost can't regulate it...too low or too high
there’s recording level adjustment on things like tape decks, is maybe what they mean.
At that price it shouldn't have ANY downsides !
Have you blocked my comments why!!
I would never do that! Why what happened?
@@anadialog ok I just never see any replies or anything for a long time not to worry cheers for getting back
You can find all your comments in the related videos. I don't answer always if I don't have much to add or some times I am simply overwhelmed by the quantity of comments and questions.
@@anadialog that's fine I'm not just saying you but other people don't leave comments and no thumbs unusual
Ah! I see...I am experiencing some problems with my last video as well, maybe there is something going on in the algorithm...
Sounds like it's over priced. And wouldn't be as good as Ray Samuels f 117 Nighthawk don't believe, or the dynavector p75 MK4 autoloading and is very good for low output cartridges works by different topology amplifiers amps not volts what most phono stages do and is only $800 both of them same price.