Valve phono stage

Raul, The OP ASKED about “valve” phono stages, preferably balanced ones. In case you don’t know, valve means tube. So naturally the discussion has been about tube or valve phono stages. And your gross generalizations only reveal your own obsession.

 There is a Herron for sale on US auto Mart right now. It is the original but I believe he can upgrade it to the latest version, but I'm not sure about that.    I did a head to head comparison with the Herron, the aesthetics rhea signature and a Zesto and the Herron was favoured by all three present. 

I did a head to head comparison with the Herron, the aesthetics rhea signature and a Zesto and the Herron was favoured by all three present.

Interesting...what was the rest of the system & cables? What differences did you hear?

Chakster, perhaps your problem is that you have been into an NOS vintage tube equipment and maybe not into the best modern tube equipment. And for sure another problem is that you are conflating phono stages with amplifiers. In my opinion, the output transformer of a classic tube amplifier is the weak link in the chain. Nearly all of the qualities of such amplifiers that are denigrated by those who prefer solid state (bass definition, warm coloration, perceived treble rolloff, etc) stem from the use of a coupling transformer at the interface between the output stage of the amplifier and speaker. But that has absolutely no bearing on the consideration of vacuum tubes versus solid-state when it comes to phono stages. In that case of course there typically is no coupling transformer. Huge swings of energy are not required. It’s a completely different ballgame, and the goals of a quality design are completely different mostly because a phono stage has to impose RIAA correction on the signal and because the signal is very tiny in terms of voltage swing. Most likely you know all this, so I wonder why you couch your argument against tubes based on your experience with power amplifiers. And you don’t name what tube amplifiers you’ve played with either.

@lewm You’re right that phono stage is not the amp, i have no experience with tube phono stages yet and that’s why i am asking why valve is better than no valve? For practical reason i know it’s not better at all.

My ex tube amp was WLM Minueta integrated (made by Trafomatic Audio for them), it’s a modern push-pull class A tube amp that i’ve been using with the best NOS tubes from the 60s/70s era. NOS tubes are much better that new tubes of that class, no questions. Mr. Srajan Ebaen reviewed WLM on 6moons with Zu Audio speakers. Here is a picture of my rack with this amp and below there is First Watt B1 preamp and WLM Phonata phono stage that i am still using. The power amp is First Watt F2J barely seen on that picture. 

From the review: " The mini in Minueta refers to the smaller chassis as well as the tiny output tube called 6BQ5 or EL84. The quartet of output glass here is good for 14wpc in Ultralinear, 5wpc in triode - and class A push-pull in either case. Power wise, it positions the Minueta between single-ended 2A3 and 300B amps on the low side, between 300B and 6C33C SETs on the high. In popular hifi opinion, the EL84 doesn’t rank as highly as direct-heated triodes and the beefier pentodes like EL34s, 6550s and 5881s. Yet true valve connoisseurs shopping with their ears and not through the nose know how sonically advanced the Minueta’s choice could really be. "