How much difference will a phono stage upgrade make?


For the past couple of years I’ve slowly been upgrading my audio equipment. I currently have a Primaluna Dialogue Premium HP integrated amplifier, an EAT C-Sharp TT with an Ortofon Quintet Black MC cartridge, and Tannoy Revolution XT 8F speakers. The weak link at this point, it would seem, is my phono stage, which is a Pro-Ject Tube Box DS. All things considered, my system sounds really good to my ears, but I can’t help but wonder what a phono stage upgrade would bring to the table. I’m looking at the Manley Chinook Special Edition MK II, which is a big step up in terms of cost, but I wonder how much better it will actually sound. Has anybody made a similar upgrade, and was there a marked uptick in sound quality?
12hz

Showing 2 responses by mmai

papafrgog, I’ve been using an Aesthetix Rhea for over a decade and I bought it used.

I initially struggled with tube rush and I guess that’s why the original owner unloaded it.

I’d tried all sorts of 12AX7s to tame the tube rush, but to no avail.

In the meantime, I tried several other phono stages, including ARC PH7, Pass Labs XP-15, BAT VK-P10SE with Super Pak, plus a few others I don’t recall.

Although all of the above phono stages are very reputable and were very quite in comparison, but none had the magic I was looking for in my system. So I was stuck with the Rhea.

Not to give up easily, I contacted Aesthetix and asked to sell me a set of selected tubes for the V1 and V2 positions (in your case, it’d be V1 and V2 for phono). These Sovtek tubes were very quiet in comparison to all previous tubes that I’d tried, although the tube rush was still audible with my ears a few feet from the speakers, but I could live with that.

However, the Sovtek tubes were somewhat lacking in terms of body and dynamic (the magic I was after). After reading so much about the Gold Lion B759, I took a plunge and replaced the Sovteks in V1 and V2.

Now the body and dynamic are restored, although at the expense of very slightly increased tube rush.

I went even further as to replace every 12AX7 with Gold Lion B759.
Tube rush is slightly audible at listening position (~12 feet away from the speaker plane) at quiet nights with the needle lifted, which is much better than before.

I am pretty content now.

YMMV and happy listening!
P.S. My best buddy has a regular Janus and he replaced all 12AX7s with Gold Lion B759s. He is happy.
papafrgog, sorry I misinformed you. The tubes that Aesthetix sold me were JJs, not Sovteks.

Regardless, the replacement Gold Lion B759s are working wonderfully for me.