MusicDirector
New member
- Joined
- May 21, 2013
- Messages
- 2,013
- Thread Author
- #1
In a word "MAGIC"!
First of all the build quality is second to none. Very solid feeling and nicely weighted. The ports in the back are as good as it gets, solid to the chassis and thick plating. Also it is endlessly adjustable for gain and capacitance and resistance for those using a MC cart. There's even a couple of adjustments for those of us using MM carts (like myself). It's a simple unit, nothing fancy, very plain and just a blue light in front to show power on. What this tells me is that they spent the money and focus on the circuitry and electronic components instead of making a fancy case with dancing lights and screens and such. Now I'm a sucker for meters and dancing lights and such, but not at the expense of sound quality or build quality. The Phonomena II has it where it counts.
I had a TC750L preamp hooked up to my Denon DP47f with a Shure M97xE cart (one of the most unimpressive carts I've ever heard). The sound I got with that was almost all the highs rolled off to the point of non-existence, muddy bass and mids.
Today I swapped out the TC750L for the Phonomena II and kept everything else the same. I was expecting to hear pretty much the same thing. I put on a record and "what's this I'm hearing"?!!!! To my utter amazment I heard highs, mids, tighter bass and basically a different cart than I was used to. I could not believe the difference! It was almost as if the Shure cart was performing beyond it's abilities (which isn't much to begin with in my opinion). I had to sit down in my astonishment! Now imagine when I get a better cart on there!
I mean, how can a phono preamp do this?! How can it make a lousy cart sound acceptable?! That's magic!
One can spend 3 or 3 times what the Phonomena II cost and probably notice even further improvement, but at that point one's other gear would have to be a good match for the higher cost preamp and on average that is not the case and one falls into chasing one's tail. The Phonomena II also works very well with Receivers and equally well with separates from what I have read and been told from those who have tested it.
As far as I'm concerned it's the last phono preamp I'll have to buy which is a good thing as even though I got it for a bit less as a demo unit basically, it's still very pricey for what it is. However, what it does is nothing short of amazing especially in it's price point and even compared to some preamps that are twice as much! I've heard a Jolia tube phono preamp at about the same price point about a month ago and it sounded awful compared to the Phonomena II.
Finally, I am able to hear vinyl through my Paradigm Studio 100s!!! I've been dying to do this!! :audiophile:
~Eric
First of all the build quality is second to none. Very solid feeling and nicely weighted. The ports in the back are as good as it gets, solid to the chassis and thick plating. Also it is endlessly adjustable for gain and capacitance and resistance for those using a MC cart. There's even a couple of adjustments for those of us using MM carts (like myself). It's a simple unit, nothing fancy, very plain and just a blue light in front to show power on. What this tells me is that they spent the money and focus on the circuitry and electronic components instead of making a fancy case with dancing lights and screens and such. Now I'm a sucker for meters and dancing lights and such, but not at the expense of sound quality or build quality. The Phonomena II has it where it counts.
I had a TC750L preamp hooked up to my Denon DP47f with a Shure M97xE cart (one of the most unimpressive carts I've ever heard). The sound I got with that was almost all the highs rolled off to the point of non-existence, muddy bass and mids.
Today I swapped out the TC750L for the Phonomena II and kept everything else the same. I was expecting to hear pretty much the same thing. I put on a record and "what's this I'm hearing"?!!!! To my utter amazment I heard highs, mids, tighter bass and basically a different cart than I was used to. I could not believe the difference! It was almost as if the Shure cart was performing beyond it's abilities (which isn't much to begin with in my opinion). I had to sit down in my astonishment! Now imagine when I get a better cart on there!
I mean, how can a phono preamp do this?! How can it make a lousy cart sound acceptable?! That's magic!
One can spend 3 or 3 times what the Phonomena II cost and probably notice even further improvement, but at that point one's other gear would have to be a good match for the higher cost preamp and on average that is not the case and one falls into chasing one's tail. The Phonomena II also works very well with Receivers and equally well with separates from what I have read and been told from those who have tested it.
As far as I'm concerned it's the last phono preamp I'll have to buy which is a good thing as even though I got it for a bit less as a demo unit basically, it's still very pricey for what it is. However, what it does is nothing short of amazing especially in it's price point and even compared to some preamps that are twice as much! I've heard a Jolia tube phono preamp at about the same price point about a month ago and it sounded awful compared to the Phonomena II.
Finally, I am able to hear vinyl through my Paradigm Studio 100s!!! I've been dying to do this!! :audiophile:
~Eric
