Phonomena, vs PS GCPH, Others?

Just to follow up on this, I went ahead with the GCPH. It hasn't gotten close to breaking in yet but definitely sounds great compared to my old Pro-ject Tube Box II and the Phonomena as well. It's presentation is different but comparable and to me it seems a toss up between extremely quiet operation with a Nova Phonomena and maybe a little more frequency extension and natural imaging with the GCPH. Depends on your priorities and which features you'd like to have more. The front gain knob has thus far spent most of its time at around 3/4 of the way up when using a MI and HO MC cartridge at their typical rear gain and loading settings. I'll update if things change remarkably throughout break-in.

Jaspert,

Not to completely hijack the thread, but could you offer a bit of comparison between the four phono stages that you preferred to the PS Audio?

I run a Dynavector 20L with the Phonomena and feel no need to upgrade, it loads everything and sound great for the price.

hi all,newb here.. just bit the bullet & replaced long serving DENON DP30L.MK2/M.F.A3 AMP, w/ NAD M3..THORENS TD700 T/T w.ORTOFON 2M BLUE.& using a NAD PP2, vinyl replay was distinctly underwhelming.....the weak link obviously.....hmmmm, now how far up the slippery pole of diminishing returns do i go for a M.M. CART.Looked thru' heaps of forums for a heads up & ps audio,graham slee kept coming up, but sheesh! 60% of T.T.outlay for a phono stage dunno 'bout that? quick call to Mike at local south oz PS AUDIO dealer steadied the wallet trigger finger,& ever so reassuringly talked me thru. what to expect on hookup.. & jeez...the bloke had UNDERSOLD the damned thing!! 30 hrs. into the burn-in period[nothing like spending wads of cash & having to be patient for results] i needn't have dithered... ABSOLUTE SONIC HEAVEN..no hum/RF.problems/deathly quiet/bass to die for.... it's going to take a very good salesman to talk me up to the M.C. stage of things.. my DYNAUDIO 72'S are singing like never before ... CD'S can take a well deseved rest. Thank's for listening & would love to hear any feedback on this topic...cheers.. BUSMEAD.

The main advantage to me for the GCPH is that I can use it directly into my amplifier with no preamp in between. And this is using my Dynavector 17d2. I would assume that if I ran it into a line preamp, I would have much more headroom and therefore much less noise when using a very low output cartridge. When I have run the GCPH into a preamp, I find it sounds best with the GCPH volume at less than 2 o'clock and setting the preamp volume at my desired listening level. I think any higher on the GCPH may overload the preamp input.