Phono Preamplifiers

There are seers out in the audio wilds, and Tim de Paravicini is certainly among them: who knew back in 1994, when the LP was on its knees and he released the 834P, that killer entry-level phono stages would be all the rage in 2019, precisely 25 years later? It was his response to the vanishing phono inputs that once were found on every preamp or integrated, and this wee all-valve design was a knock-out. In the intervening years, there have been superlative budget phono stages to accommodate those who bought those line-level-only amplifiers, after CD seemingly put paid to the built-in RIAA stage. Cambridge, Pro-Ject, Creek, Musical Fidelity – joined this year by Chord and EAT's E-Glo Petit [HFN Feb '19]...

I could go on forever, but it's the 834P which has never left my system. As I wrote 20 years ago when reviewing the dearer EAR 864 [HFN Jan 2000], 'Terrifyingly, it was as far back as mid-1994 that I reviewed the EAR 834P, and I've been using it as my "real world" reference phono stage ever since'. That hasn't changed, but over the decades, the finish has gone from agricultural to something far more slick and presentable, and – as the new PhonoBox also demonstrates – the user again has a choice of a 'black box' economy version or shiny chrome. I still use the original, unadorned 834P whenever a budget or mid-price phono cartridge needs reviewing. And it still matches the best of them.