If anyone is in the market for a budget priced phono stage that performs well above and beyond I would suggest taking a look at the Spartan 5 by Michael Fidler.
https://michaelfidler.com/spartan/5/
I had had designs on his Spartan 10 but faffed around to much and it was discontinued, however by this turn of fate I got the S5 and it is really good. So good in fact that I have been working through trying it out with my British vintage integrated amplifiers and it has brought a new lease of life to each of them. I’m particularly enjoying it just now with my Creek CAS4040, and its the only one that hasn’t been serviced!
It has made me hungry to try his new Spartan 15 for my main system, it is the new cheaper replacement for the S10 and was a further development from the design of the S5 if I’ve understood things correctly!
And the best thing of all is they all have a mono switch, hooray.
https://michaelfidler.com/spartan/5/
I had had designs on his Spartan 10 but faffed around to much and it was discontinued, however by this turn of fate I got the S5 and it is really good. So good in fact that I have been working through trying it out with my British vintage integrated amplifiers and it has brought a new lease of life to each of them. I’m particularly enjoying it just now with my Creek CAS4040, and its the only one that hasn’t been serviced!
It has made me hungry to try his new Spartan 15 for my main system, it is the new cheaper replacement for the S10 and was a further development from the design of the S5 if I’ve understood things correctly!
And the best thing of all is they all have a mono switch, hooray.