turntable and phono pre-amp combination

[admin_exported]

Dear all,

i currently have a cyrus 6vs, MA RS1 speakers, Atacama nexus 6 stands and qed XT-350 cable. I am playing music through an mp3 player, but am looking to get a turntable so that i can listen to my old vinyl. I have my heart set on the project 1 expression 3 turntable, and was wandering what the people with this turntable would recommend as a phono stage.

The obvious choice seemed to be project phono box, phono box SE or CA 640. However, i have seen some reviews of the graham slee 1 (bridge) amp and was wandering if this is worth the extra outlay?

i mainly listen to all music apart from yodelling and overly "twangy" country music. eg- pink floyd, steely dan, mahler, moby, fleetwood mac, tom waits etc.

many thanks in advance,

john

 

[nads]

well, i run the Pro-Ject 2 Xperience SuperPack 2 with a NAD PP2 and will be auditioning some nicer phono stages as i feel there is more to be had from the £300 cartridge and deck. What i will be listening to will depend on what the shop has in for evaluation. Slee is a name that is often mentioned in the same breath as Phono stage, and i hope i will be hearing one soon.

 

[John Duncan]

I've read contradictory reports of the cheapest Slee, though there's no doubt that the top end ones are good.

I can recommend the Cambridge 640p though, it's worth the 60 quid you pay for it (and still makes 40 quid on eBay if you want to upgrade subsequently).

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies.

Just wandering what the difference in phono stages means in terms of the sound- do the more expensive amps "remove" surface noise, hence giving a cleaner sound, or do they offer very different sonic characteristics. In other words, do they "add" to the sound from the turntable or simply amplify the signal up to line level sensitivity?

I tend to prefer musical integration that i can listen to for hours without feeling tired from over-analysing soundstages and the minutae of detail.

many thanks, john