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Phono stages.

Too many rich people here lol I have to make do with the Musical Fidelity XLPs v3. Works well enough for me. Bought it from a SevenOaks branch closure long time ago for £140 new
 
i am still using AuroraSound VIDA phono stage
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I moved up to an Arkless from my Dino, great VFM (I have it for sale, should anyone desire such).
 
I'm enjoying a Heed Questar with Heed Q PSU matched with a AT440MLb in my system, not sure how it stacks up to the opposition but would be interested to hear if anyone has made some comparisons.
 
Over the past decade, I've owned a few outstanding phono stages including Eastern Electric, Moon and 47 Labs. I continue to use the EE Minimax and have no urge to upgrade...no urge to upgrade the phono stage anyway! ;)

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You certainly can't complain about the parts quality with the NJC - I don't think I've ever heard it though:

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FWIW the ones that I've noticed coming up consistently from this group were:

1) Arkless 640/651 Turbo or Turbo++. I realize there was at one point some bloodshed on this issue but people seemed to really love the product.

2) The Paradise which, if I'm not mistaken Simon built like 10 of. They are supposed to be great. Certainly some of the pictures would indicate a serious phono stage, again, never heard it.

My question to you guys with experiences on the above was what about the:

3) Firebottle

It something designed in a similar vein (not technically, but spiritually) as another DIY project somewhere else out there in the Ether-Sphere-Webs and I'm curious how it stacks up to these.

I can only speak for my own DV P-75 which, I think is quite good and having gone up to the Mk. 3 now they are really quite solid.
 
I think you'll find Simon has built at least 16 to my knowledge as my one was no14.
It is a very serious phono stage but you have to have 4 boxes a la Naim 110. It's a mono format with a dedicated power supply per channel, easily out classing my previous phono stage Whest Audio 30R.

Simon once told me that a friend of his had a Tom Evans top of the range phono stage circa £10K and there wasn't much in it.

Regards,

Martin
 


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