Posted by Response34 (D) on June 14, 2008 at 19:47:00

Anyone heard the new L2 phono stage?

I went in to work today to do some paperwork and cleaning at the shop while my boys were across the street playing with their friends. I have been waiting for the phono circuit boards that were on order to come in but they haven't arrived yet so I figured I would just build my own from scratch. An hour and a half later, there is vinyl spinning.

I built the phono new stage on 1/4" Birch ply using a combination of ELNA Cerafine & Ruby lytics with coupling duties handled by SoniCaps. Everything is hardwired using silver wire. Tube are Sovtek 12AX7WA for the input (for now anyway) with a JJ Gold ECC82 output stage. It was installed in my Audio Note Custom L2 Deluxe preamp that I have been running for several months now.

I recently came across my original Audio Note TT-1 turntable that I sold to a customer a few years back so this is what I am currently using to spin vinyl.

I had a chance to play 3 full albums through it before having to leave and it is dead quiet and sounding good (lots of break-in needed).

I think I am going to stick with the hardwired Birch ply phono stages for all future builds and even going with the same arrangement for the analog boards as well.

Next step is to build another board with Mundorf Silver/Oil capacitors in the coupling stages and install it into another one of my L2 preamps. I didn't want to use expensive capacitors until I was sure the layout would be noise free.

So if there is anyone out there considering the new L2 preamp kit with the phono stage from Brian, I can tell you that the phono stage is a welcomed addition. Brian's new board looks to be a quick assembly and is easily hooked up in the preamp.

So, anyone else have any experince with the new phono stage in the L2 preamp?
Bill

"Build your system for yourself not the critics"