best phono stage under £100?

[tommyb]

looking at linking an Onkyo 875 to a Technics SL 1210.

 

[Anonymous]

I would buy a used Creek OBH 15 or 18.

 

[chebby]

Tannoyite:I would buy a used Creek OBH 15 or 18.

I would too, but the problem is that the OBH-18 (MM only) is - at least - £159 and the OBH-15 (MC) even more.

I would suggest the Graham Slee Gram Amp 1 'The Bridge' for £100 (MM) or the Cambridge Audio 640P for about £79 (MM & MC)

I am still using the Rega Fono-Mini (MM only. £55) and I like it a lot but it is a stop-gap until I can afford an OBH-18 (or even a Trichord Dino - £308 - maybe one day.)

 

[John Duncan]

CA 640p no question.

 

[chebby]

Tannoyite:I would buy a used Creek OBH 15 or 18.

Sorry Tannoyite I missed the 'used' bit of your sentence in my previous response.

I have found that used Creek OBH-18's don't come up on ebay a lot (if ever) whenever I have looked.

 

[Anonymous]

chebby:[Sorry Tannoyite I missed the 'used' bit of your sentence in my previous response.

I have found that used Creek OBH-18's don't come up on ebay a lot (if ever) whenever I have looked.

That's OK.

I thought you guys in the UK could easily get a used OBH.

If not, the CA 640 is a great phono amp.

 

[nads]

does not the 875 have one built in?

Is it worth spending money on a Phono stage for an AV amp that has one built in?

 

[tommyb]

nads:

does not the 875 have one built in?

Is it worth spending money on a Phono stage for an AV amp that has one built in?

Yeah, but I posted about that yesterday to ask if it was any good and essentially the feedback seems to be no!

You think it's any good?

 

[chebby]

nads:
does not the 875 have one built in?

Is it worth spending money on a Phono stage for an AV amp that has one built in?

The current Onkyo 876 lists a 'phono input' but (even in a £1000 receiver) it is unlikely that a lot of attention has been paid to the quality of compenents dedicated to vinyl replay in something designed primarily for AV usage. In the same way that most of these AV amps have headphone sockets but they don't devote a lot of cost to the quality of the built in headphone amp circuitry.

I'll wager that a good seperate phono-stage costing £100 is going to be far superior in design and component quality than what you will find inside the Onkyo.

Certain brands of amplifier do still have decent built in phono-stages (or the option of good plug-in modules) like Rega and Creek and Arcam (Linn?) because of their legacy or 'heritage' and/or because they still continue to manufacture turntables and vinyl related products but not many.

 

[d_a_n1979]

TBH ui dont think you'd need to spend any more £££ over this

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/1441

The NAD phono stage gets a very good write up and would be an ideal connection between your Onk and the Technics turntable

 

[tommyb]

any idea how it fairs in comparison to the Cambridge audio 640p?

 

[Anonymous]

Some friends of mine which have owned the PP2 didn't like it very much. They say the CA is better (and these are guys who like NAD amps better than CA amps). But when they upgraded the NAD PP2, they went directly to a Creek phono stage, or something even better. So probably they didn't think the CA was really that superior to the NAD.