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In Reply to: Phono Preamp posted by PMC0607 on September 5, 2014 at 17:51:53:
The Rogue phono preamps are very good sounding at their respective price points, but can indeed be tricky with regards to hum. I owned the Stealth a number of years ago, and have gone through many other stages and comparisons since then. Your level of setup would absolutely benefit significantly from a phono stage upgrade (beyond just hum level); the Stealth is good but will be holding back that level of gear.
The one-box units with a toroid can have that issue where you may need to rotate the thing to minimize hum (had to do this on a PS Audio GCPH).
I don't have experience with the other units you listed. The following stages I have owned all represent a very significant step up in MC sound quality, combined with very low noise:
* Hagerman Trumpet with Bob's Devices 1131 SUT
* Sonic Frontiers Phono 1 or Phono 1 SE+
* The built-in phono stage for a VAC Renaissance III preamp (MC mode or MM w/ 1131)
The Rogue Ares is also a very significant step up in sound quality (especially with 1131 SUT), but once again that last bit of hum/buzz can be tricky (and this one even uses a 2nd chassis for the toroid). Honestly, this stage is also tonally more like high-quality digital playback than the other stages. And it does some things spectacularly, but you have to decide if this attribute gels with what you want to get from vinyl. You can warm it up with tube rolling, but that's not really where it wants to go -- in fact I ended up liking Telefunken 12AX7 the best here -- the speed, microdynamics, snap and agility of this combination were superb. The Hagerman Trumpet lies on the other side of the spectrum from this. The Stealth is more similar to the Ares, except minus all of the spectacular things.
The Benz PP-1 (T9 is better than T8 version) is an incremental, but still notable, sonic upgrade to the Stealth, and also very quiet.
The PS Audio GCPH was also an incremental upgrade to the Stealth in sound quality, but can also have minor hum issues as you approach MC gain levels.
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Follow Ups
- RE: Phono Preamp - mulveling 08:51:38 09/12/14 (2)
- RE: Phono Preamp - PMC0607 23:41:55 11/14/14 (1)
- RE: Phono Preamp - mulveling 20:08:24 11/17/14 (0)
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