DARLINGTON LABS. PHONO PREAMP : IMPRESSIONS

Posted by mnawaz3@aol.com (A) on March 26, 2021 at 09:41:59

HI all,

the darlington phono preamp arrived today. about $329 on flea site.
usa made.. oh, does that really matter?-- well, yes... if its designed here too. when the designer is same as implementer then higher probability of a good fit. grounding, wire placemen etc all seem to make a difference in phono sections.

system:
harbeth compact7, lectron tube amp. custom tube line-stage.
vinyl: soundsmith103 fed into denon silver stepup tranny.

phono-stages: 1. darlington
2. schitt mani
3. custom tube-phono ($$$)

darlington.. first listening impression:.. wow!. can this really be that good? dynamic, clean, deep bass, high resolution and considerable depth. guessing john curl would be approving too (ok, just guessing).

schitt mani.. big difference. while this is a great-achiever at its price-point, next to darlington, this is mid-fi. really, not little bit close. the mani sounds threadbare. bass is reticent. everything diluted compared to darlington.

custom-tube. not really fair to compare these 2 side by side. the custom unit had 3k in parts. needless to say, i expected a big jump up with the custom tube phono preamp. but the actual differences were more lateral than vertical. actually, on first cut, the darlington sounded more emphatic and energetic in addition to being slightly more informational. continued listening, brought out the big diffeence: the tube unit was more musically engaging and less shouty; quiet relaxed authority.

will compare this to a pass and kylne. am suspecting that it will keep up.

what did i learn. a) darlington unit is outstanding b). probably much easier to get a good ss phono stage than tube phono unit. c) one day i might get a $$$$ SS phono stage.

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Topic - DARLINGTON LABS. PHONO PREAMP : IMPRESSIONS - mnawaz3@aol.com 09:41:59 03/26/21 (7)

RE: DARLINGTON LABS. PHONO PREAMP : IMPRESSIONS - TSWisla 19:44:00 03/26/21 (1)

RE: DARLINGTON LABS. PHONO PREAMP : IMPRESSIONS - xsb7244 22:00:26 03/26/21 (0)

RE: Can you post something about your line stage? - B. Scarpia 13:50:10 03/26/21 (3)

RE: Can you post something about your line stage? - mnawaz3@aol.com 04:20:16 03/27/21 (0)

RE: Can you post something about your line stage? - mnawaz3@aol.com 16:09:19 03/26/21 (0)

RE: Can you post something about your line stage? - mnawaz3@aol.com 15:11:41 03/26/21 (0)

mm-6: DARLINGTON LABS. PHONO PREAMP : IMPRESSIONS - mnawaz3@aol.com 11:07:08 03/26/21 (0)

DARLINGTON LABS. PHONO PREAMP : IMPRESSIONS

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