for over 30 years hi fi manufacturers included a phono section of superior quality in all stereo preamps and integrated amps. they were built to RIAA standards and fundamentally no different than the ones that are sold today which still adhere to those standards. after all they were the primary source of sound . are some better than others?..sure..but none is complex enough to warrant overcharging consumers. most high priced phono pres don't even have phono equalization, which was in high demand by audiophiles who considered vinyl their primary interest.
Why is the trend to make separate phono stage
Why is the trend to make a separate phono stage. Say a high end pre-amp such as Audio Research Reference 2 you need to spend $ 10,000 for a line stage and another $ 7,000 for the reference phono stage. Almost every manufacturer has started to separate the two components. Is this to make more money selling two boxes or has technology gotten so sophisticated that it needs to be separate or lastly maybe only 25 % or less of the buyers want phono, so the manufacturer focuses on the 75 % population that need a line pre-amp. For us oldies it used to be easy to add a MC/MM board to the pre-amp to add the phone section. What happened??
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- 19 posts total
- 19 posts total