Phono pre-amp discussion

A newbie question for a friend of mine : Schiit Mani or Lehmann black cube ?

Ali

 

I have only heard samples online but based off those the black cube is waaaay ahead of the Mani.

 

Never even heard of the Black Cube, but I'd vote against the Mani.

 

How did Schiit miss the mark so badly on the Mani? Nothing else on their product line performs this poorly, at any price point.

 

I was going to pick up an RSA Nighthawk, but decided to build this instead.
http://www.pmillett.com/LR_phono.html

Stay tuned.

 

Snoop - I'm so close...


The more I read the more really good things I hear about this. I bought marv's ph3d so I will have this to compare.

Are you going to be building the power supply or running a battery?

 

I'll be using the PS, but in a separate enclosure with an umbilical. I'm also including a pair of Cinemag CM1254 step up trannies. The amp section will have a
selector switch to choose between MC and MM, as well as one to select between HI (1:40) and LO (1:20) ratios on the MC input. I'm also planning to socket
R1/2 to be able to experiment with different input impedances. Just call me anal.

Can't wait to see your finished product.

 

Looking to get off my Anthem phonostage, it works decently enough but I would like more gain and I know I can do better.

Pretty hard budget of $3-500.

Cart is a SAE 1000LT HOMC: 2.5mV output , prefers 47k loading.

Current suspects:
Lounge LCR MKIII: http://www.loungeaudio.com/#!lcr-mr-iii/c1vla
Park Audio Budgie: http://parksaudiollc.com/budgiepreamp.html
Tavish Designs Vintage 6SL7 Kit: https://tavishdesign.com/products/vintage-6sl7-phono-stage
Haggerman Cornet3: https://hagerman-audio-labs.myshopify.com/products/cornet3


Any thoughts? Anything else I should be looking at? Anything exceptional used in that price range?

What I want from a phonostage: I would like more gain than I currently have(35db). I would like very low noise as most of my listening is on headphones now. I am tube agnostic, I just want a good stage, glass or sand doesn't matter to me much if the end result is clean and detailed. I value detail, imaging, and solid bass.

 

@MrTie I snagged my used v2 RSA F-117 Nighthawk for $500 in mint condition, and another member paid a similar amount for a used unit as well.

Fantasticly low noise level, speed, and detail for the price. Just ask @shaizada our resident vinyl specialist

 

The Nighthawk is on the maybe if I find one list for sure.

 

I'm really new so be kind please The mani seems really close to the metal tho... using it on some Elac ub5's & I think its revealing more the weaknesses on the 2M red cart... could hear distortion on only one channel & it was just a slight anti-skate adjust to get rid of it... but can now hear super fine distortion in the highs. But the new resolution and harmonics is worth it. Want to try a new cart because of the schiit (thinking NAGAOKA MP-110)-- my psaudio phono did not reveal this.

 

I thought the Mani was highly regarded in these parts? I liked it for the price but only had it in my setup for a day on loan.

This guy LOVES the Mani and thinks it's preferrable than stuff like the Lounge LCR and even the Black Cube SE, kinda funny actually...



This is overdue but I did want to share a recent learning experiences, probably a bit different than what I've read around the place:

I recently sold my Jolida JD9 and did some flip flopping between the Phonomena II and the RSA Nighthawk. The Jolida had a bunch of small tweaks/mods and in hindsight it was not at all a bad buy ~ you do have to grow some balls and be willing to and budget to mod the heck out of it though. I didn't even go "all the way" on the mods like some have done, the input board is tiny and jam packed and did not look fun to work on.

One thing I didn't realize about the Jolida is that despite some of the flack that it gets, it is still a very good phono pre all said and done and for the money it sits right where it needs to no more no less. With Sovtek 12ax7lps tubes it had a lower noise floor than my Phonomena II, I didn't believe it at first but it was clear as day with headphones. I know how to dial in my gain and loading so hopefully it is low probability for user error.

I have two rigs and in my main setup it outright destroyed the RSA Nighthawk! Which brings me to another point, that stupid thing that sales people say about tubes/gear/cables is so true, different gear chains will respond differently, even in the world of phono pre's.

The Jolida rolled off the high end and has exaggeration in midbass, the Phonomena II did beat it out in the details (at the expense of added brightness) and ever so slightly with staging. The Jolida did better than both the Nighthawk and Phonomena II with headphone listening and did not draw any unnecessary attention to crackle.

I am learning that many phono pre's are ultra overpriced for what you get and the majority of them use opamps for amplification ~ so that sucks and us regular people will probably have to live with the options that we get. IMO though, don't ever buy into giant killer/game changer hype, the market for Phono preamps is just plain bizarre compared to standard audio fare.

 

Focus is digital, but dabbling a little with vinyl... right now my start is a project-debut carbon-->2m-red-->schiit mani-->elac ub5.

Figured the low hanging fruit to upgrade that turntable slightly is an acrylic platter, a heavy puck, and a 2m-blue (I read the red is a tipped diamond vs. the blue "nude" diamond)

http://www.ortofon.com/media/14912/everything_you_need_to_know_about_styli_types.pdf

Is the mani bad for even this setup... is there some glaring problem with it? Thanks!!

 

Are there are glaring flaws you are looking to correct?

 

Nope, good so far-- Thanks!

 

I am looking to get a turntable setup myself. In the DIY forums that I frequent I keep seeing the Muffsy Phono preamp.

http://www.muffsy.com/

At $50 for the basic kit it seems like it's worth trying. I am also considering the Bugle 2.

https://hagerman-audio-labs.myshopify.com/products/bugle2

Down the line I eventually would like to have a tube phono. Either a Pete Millett or TubeCAD build.

 

Other end of the spectrum... Does anyone have experience with Lamm or Doshi phono stages?