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They also have a buffer which I have not tried yet but I will.
Anyway, a couple months back someone posted a thread here suggesting the Boozhound Labs Head amp was as good or better than the premium cinemag. I did not really need the head amp because I was very happy with my onboard head amp and I had a cinema 3440 which served it's purpose well. But I got the itch so I bought the kit. I was so floored at how wonderful it was I had to buy the phono amp kit!!! It is equally as great. They really excel at voice separation and are wonderfully detailed and dynamic with ethereal rich tonal colors. Its battery powered and ultra quiet. They are just incredible bargains. The phono kit is $89 and the head amp kit is $49. So for $140 plus another ~$70ish in other parts such as rca connectors, rechargeable batteries and an enclosure I have by far the best mc/mm phono amp I've ever owned and ever recall hearing. Not bad.
The concept behind boozhound labs is (as far as I can tell anyway) zero feedback, minimalist design and quality parts. They differ from Hagerman in that they send you all the parts for the board plus the board. Hagerman allows you more flexibility (or PITA depending on your perspective) to source the parts yourself. So with boozhound you get less flexibility but the parts they select are pretty damn good. The skill level required to assemble and solder everything is pretty minimal. You don't need to be able to read a circuit schematic because they have "R1..R2" "C1..C2" printed on the circuit board. You will either need to be able to read the color code on the resistors or own a multimeter to know which resistor is what but thats not a hard thing to do. If you have any experience with a soldering iron and multimeter you should be able to complete one of these projects.
I have also done a Hagerman Bugle with many many many upgraded parts to include Vishay resistors and russian teflon caps. Pretty much anything in the signal path got a top of the line part. The Bugle required greater skill and much greater knowledge about parts and where/how to source them. It was still pretty simple but definitely harder than the boozhound. A guy named Tom Patton helped be with the project. Some of you may know him. Great guy and tremendous help. I basically just did what he told me. He built a hotrodded Clarinet and a few hot rodded Bottlehead projects. He said this Bugle project holds its own with those other amps but clearly not as good. Same league mabey but not same game. For whatever that is worth anyway.
So which amp do I prefer, the boozhound or the bugle? I dunno, they are a little different. The hotrodded bugle has amazing tonal colors, I mean really lush and engaging. But it doesn't come close to the Boozhound wrt voice separation and detail. So going from the bugle to the boozhound you go from amazing tonal colors to merely outstanding but you pick up a lot of detail and clarity. I probably go with the boozhound, but I could see someone who puts a real premium on lush lifelike tones taking the bugle. Of course to get the quality out of the bugle like I did you have to either really know what you are doing or (like me) know someone who really knows what they are doing. The boozhound is more "straight out of the box."
Nate
You can't cheat an honest man, never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump -- W.C. Fields
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Topic - Big recommendation for Boozhound Labs Head and Phono amp - texanater 16:57:47 04/16/14 (0)
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