Phono Preamplifiers

Yokohama-based Aurorasound was founded by Shinobu Karaki in 2010. Previously he'd worked as an engineer for Texas Instruments in Japan from 1980-2009 but took early retirement to pursue his own interest in audio. The first product was a line stage called the CADA which incorporated a DAC and rare triodes. Soon after, he developed the VIDA (Vinyl Disk Amplifier) employing LCR (inductor/capacitor/resistor) equalisation, sourcing the inductors from Lundahl in Sweden.

Says Guy Sergeant of UK distributor, Pure Sound, 'Karaki is also something of a fan of specialised and somewhat obscure transistors that, in many cases, were made specifically for audio use. Indeed, he acquires and hoards quantities of his favourites in the way others might do with particular valves. Karaki is also part of a fairly niche society of mostly Japanese audiophiles who, via a Facebook group, share their love of cartridges such as [founder of ADC] Peter Pritchard-designed General Electric variable reluctance designs'.

Aurorasound now manufactures the three VIDA phono stages [HFN Mar 19], the SP03L MC step-up transformer, HEADA headphone amp [HFN May '15], PREDA [HFN Nov '14] and PREDA-III solid-state preamplifiers, the PADA-EL34 triode stereo power amplifier and the PADA-300B monoblock, plus other accessories.