Origin Live newsletter No 6

7th October 2004

contents

1. System philosophy & upgrading
2. Phono stages

system philosophy & upgrading

We estimate that over 50 % of queries we receive, relate to system philosophy and upgrading. This is obviously an area of critical interest. Topics tend to centre on hierarchy of front end components and value for money. I would love to see magazines carry out specific, hard evidence, quantifiable comparisons of different / arm / cartridge / phono stage / isolating platform combinations on the SAME deck – most advice on system hierarchy is left to gut feeling. As a consequence people are slightly in the dark as to the things that really count most and how to apportion their budget. You can find a brief guidance document that we have produced on system philosophy and upgrading at http://www.originlive.com/system_brochure.pdf which addresses these issues.

Phono stages

One of the things that continually surprises us is how many people are using their cartridge / tonearm output directly into their integrated amplifier or pre-amp (with on board phono stage). This is almost guaranteed to vastly reduce the potential of the moving coil cartridge in comparison to what is achievable through a specialist outboard phono stage. Why is this? When one considers that 95% of the bass amplification for a moving coil cartridge occurs in the phono stage it is easy to understand why. For the midrange 80% of the signal amplification occurs in the phono stage.

The truth is that many integrated amplifiers use little more than a single chip costing all of £1 to carry out this critical function. It is no more than a token so that people can hook up a cheap deck. Even integrated amps with allegedly “good” phono stages still fall far short of the amazing stand alone versions that are available. The reasons for this can be summarised as follows

1. It is a highly specialist aspect of electronic design - companies that love vinyl have focussed a great deal of time and effort into this area. Most amplifier manufacturers are catering for CD / line level signal levels and have not invested R & D work into this area.
2. To reduce costs, it makes sense for amplifier manufacturers to minimise costs of phono stage components in an integrated amp. The simple reason is that only a small percentage of folk are likely to use a turntable of real quality.
3. The most performance enhancing aspect of all amplification is a clean, unimpeded power supply. With integrated and pre-amplifiers the phono stage has to “piggy back” off the power supply for amplification that is far more current hungry. To put it mildly this is bad news – not only are voltage sometimes lacking but the phono stage supply is badly contaminated by the workings of the main amplification. Even audiophile integrated amps or pre-amps such as Naim, Sugden, Audio analogue etc that have supposedly “good” phono stages still fall well short of good stand alone applications at around the £200 mark.

If you are using an integrated amp for your phono amplification we would suggest trying a stand alone device – you will be amazed at the difference. Having said this please be wary that not every stand alone model out there is a safe bet. Models that offer both moving magnet and moving coil facility at £100 are nothing short of disastrous and a complete waste of money in our view. We recommend a number of phono stages on our web site and to summarize briefly our tried and tested hot list runs as follows:
For moving magnet cartridge outputs – The GSP audio range, which starts at £85.
For moving coil cartridges – Creek audio at the £190 mark & Trichord Dino at the £300 mark
Above this, the choice becomes a lot less clear as there are a lot of good phono stages but the GSP audio range is one of our favourites and has received a number of rave reviews across a wide range of magazines.

Hope this is of some help to those on the upgrade path.