Phono Preamps with "balls" ?


taking the cue from another thread about speakers with "balls" - what are some phono preamps that you have found to be the most powerful, dynamic and yet still sound clean.  
i turn on my digital sources and they are often much more robust sounding and would like to know if there are phono preamps that can deliver.  thanks in advance  
avanti1960
Sheesh.

do you still think that R2R is the best analog reproduction medium?
No, I've never said that. LP is superior since it is lower distortion, lower noise and wider bandwidth. This is why LPs are used to release albums recorded on tape and not the other way 'round.

Raul, you are embarrassing yourself. The problem seems to be that you know nothing about how the industry makes recordings, and even less about the technologies involved. You should try running a recording/mastering operation sometime. When I first started cutting LPs, a good number of things I thought I 'knew' about the medium were dashed. One was how quiet lathe cuts are- they easily rival digital. The surface noise comes in during the pressing process (Acoustic Sounds with their pressing plant QRP has done a lot to solve that problem and now make the quietest pressings in the world). Another is how much dynamic range the medium has, and how low its distortion actually is (the cutter amps usually have about 10 times the power needed to completely toast the cutter head; the LP mastering system has the highest overhead of any audio process; it can't be overloaded like other processes can be). Additional noise and distortion can be caused by the pickup and equalizer (the latter can add ticks and pops that you might think are on the LP surface). But those problems are correctable. I suspect that you are making a common mistake of construing them with the media itself.

Here is my major objection to digital audio: I've gone to many concerts and also played in orchestra and bands. In those situations, if there is background noise like air conditioning, glasses clinking or people coughing, you can listen past them because they are not the music. Similarly, the artifacts of analog (hiss, ticks and pops) can be easily ignored by the brain as well, because those things sit in the speaker while the music is in 3 dimensions.

Digital OTOH imposes audible distortion (caused by aliasing and other problems, interpreted as brightness by the brain, which is why CDs still sound bright even if you have tone controls and turn the treble down all the way) that cannot be distinguished from the music.

Again, if digital is so much better, why are Best Buy and Target continuing to sell LPs while they are dumping CDs? Why are LP sales eclipsing digital downloads? One reason is digital streaming, but the other is that people that don't know anything about the technical bits still want LPs because they 'sound better'. Until you can solve that dilemma, the analog/digital floggings will continue.

@jollytinker 

If you're considering an SUT in conjunction with a MM phono stage, then you might also consider the Zyx Cryo Pre-preamp. It is definitely ballsy. The latest update (v.2) increased the gain over the previous version.  It's a marvelous step up device in my opinion and doesn't have some of the drawbacks of transformers (less fussy about cables for instance). Not cheap again, but compared to a good SUT I think it's actually fairly reasonable.  

Even the first version, which i am using now, the ZYX CPP-1 Cryo (input impedance 125 Ohm, Step up ration 26db) is very interesting device to have. Arthur Salvatore swear it's better that any top quality SUTs out there. 
If you want oomph and dynamics:

Whest 0.2 (and all the others)
Tom Evans Groove et al
Renaissance (forgotten which model)
Dear @atmasphere : Forgeret all what you write in your last post, it does not helps in anyway to prove that analog bass is better than digital because it's not.

Again do it a favor and listen the CD and the LP of those scores I posted to you and please listen it not in your system that can't honor those scores ( no matters what. ) but in a good home audio system with bipolar electronics and subs. Till you do that is useless all your in good intention words. Don't waste your time till you listen it.

"""  imposes audible distortion (caused by aliasing ... """

don't try to figth against digital and don't try to win  that figth because before you started that figth you already losted it:

http://www.mstarlabs.com/dsp/digital-anti-alias-filters.html 


https://dsp.stackexchange.com/questions/9205/can-we-have-a-digital-anti-aliasing-filter

How many google pages do you need to understand that aliasing is not any more a digital problem as you said?

Btw, do you know that in a home audio system the MUSIC belongs to the bass range?

Dear audiophiles as better your home audio system bass management as better the overall quality performance of your audio system.
According with a scientific studies made it by Harman group the ideal number of subs in a home system is of 4 self powered ones where in " automatic " way the bass range will be smooth and with out bass room nodes and the like. We have to worry on nothing in that bass range and ovbiously that the benefits comes not only on that bass range but at the same time a better mid and high frequency ranges ! !

We need as minimum 2 subs.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

@chakster  yes I've been really impressed with the Zyx CPP-1. It's my understanding that the increase in gain in the second version was actually driven mainly by customers. So the first version may be closer to Mr nakatsuka's original vision.  Also I seem to recall that the input impedance on mine is 100ohm (not 125) so perhaps he lowered it when he increased the gain?