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Alchemist Freya Apd3 Pre Amplifier

justshoemark

pfm Member
Hi all.
I have just brought one of the above pre amplifiers to try out. What a lovely looking thing it is.
Just waiting for it to arrive.
Dose anyone no about them?
Dose it have a built in phono stage as there is a input on the back but I have seen bits on the net that it needs a separate phono stage.
Many thanks
 
From what I remember, Alchemist products didn’t have an inbuilt phono stage unless you specified it. You’ll have to open it up to find out. I never heard this model but the latter ranges were all excellent and were designed by the same guy, I’m pretty certain. They were all very good preamps, if rather dated looking by today’s rather more understated standards. They were made to be very blingy looking for far -eastern markets and in the UK were really quite over looked despite being very high-quality.
 
There was a separate phono stage, the Bragi, but a phono board was available which plugged into gold plated header pins on a PCB in the Freya. This system was used on most Alchemist pre's and IIRC the same board was used for everything from budget to high end pres. If you go to the "Designers" bit of the Alchemist site there is a pic of yours truly in an uncharacteristically loud shirt:D Pre "snow on the roof" 'n all.... time is a cruel mistress:eek::oops::D

Do I have any phono boards available? No. I do have the schematic though and could build one to order but as you would imagine it would not be cheap as it would be a hand made one-off.
 
Hi arkless.
Thanks for your reply.
So are you saying there will not be a phono stage already in the pre but one could be put in? would it help if I sent you some internal pictures once I get the pre.
I am very excited must say.
Thanks again.
 
Hi arkless.
Thanks for your reply.
So are you saying there will not be a phono stage already in the pre but one could be put in? would it help if I sent you some internal pictures once I get the pre.
I am very excited must say.
Thanks again.

There may or may not be one fitted.. it was an optional extra. If there is a plug in board like the one in pic below fitted then that's the phono stage. As Alchemist ceased trading many years ago now your only chance would be a wanted ad on the forums, or ebay I guess. Just had a recce on ebay and non for sale plus non under "sold" or "completed" so probably very rare. Like I said I can make you one (I'd need to have the Freya here to do it) but the hand made to order from scratch nature of it would mean not cheap. MM only BTW.

mm_phono_stage_800.jpg
 
Thanks for the info.
I will have a look and post some pics when I get it. Then I may well be sending it to you for a phono stage if I need one. .thanks.
 


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