Phono Preamplifiers

As any experienced vinyl spinner will attest, your choice of phono preamplifier can have as great an impact on sound as the partnering turntable, arm and cartridge. Case in point, a few months ago Musical Fidelity’s Nu-Vista Vinyl 2 [HFN Feb ’24] made a big impression – and not only because of its bulk. The M8x Vinyl is closely related to that unit, albeit minus the nuvistor valve stage and equipped with a more practical housing. What the newest phono preamplifier from the company retains is a can-do attitude, offering support for a broad range of moving-magnet and moving-coil cartridges. There’s also the dual-mono, fully balanced design, powered by a sizeable ‘Encapsulated Super Silent’ toroidal transformer. So while there are differences there are striking similarities too.

Is it my imagination, or are more hi-fi products steadily adopting greater functionality? Now, it's highly unlikely that Germany's resolutely 'analogue' Lehmannaudio brand will succumb to networking its phono stages any time soon, but the new £2599 Phonolith does wrap a trio of roles into one - an MM/MC phono stage, line level preamplifier and headphone amplifier. That said, it's not quite strictly rolled into 'one' as it's a two-box design, with the second unit being the standalone, dedicated power supply.

Visitors to Henley Audio's room at the UK Hi-Fi Show Live at Ascot's Grandstand back in Sept '23 will already have seen three new items from Musical Fidelity, all partnering the Nu-Vista PRE and PAS amplifiers [HFN Mar '23]. The new M8xTT turntable [HFN Dec '23] has already premiered in these pages and this is followed here by the Nu-Vista Vinyl 2 phono stage and Nu-Vista DAC, both priced £9999.

MoFi Electronics has gone from strength to strength in the last few years, helped by the roster of designers drafted in to create its products. Spiral Groove's Allen Perkins worked on its UltraGold MC cartridge [HFN Jan '22] and MasterDeck turntable, while ex-TAD/ELAC Andrew Jones is responsible for its SourcePoint loudspeakers [HFN Apr & Aug '23]. Now comes the £5999 MasterPhono, a flagship phono stage from the pen of Peter Madnick, a designer best known for the iconic Audio Alchemy brand and his work as part of the Constellation Audio team.

With vinyl sales now surpassing CD, the revival is back with such force that the flood of phono stages and decks will surely continue unabated. More than that, it's enough for PrimaLuna to show its confidence in analogue to bring out its first EVO phono amp, the EVO 100 Tube Phono Preamplifier at £3398.

One burning question is begged by the arrival of Pro-Ject's X2 B turntable and Phono Box S3 B phono stage: why did it take so long for the industry to simplify a balanced vinyl-playing front-end? It's not like balanced operation wasn't adopted by high-end listeners decades ago as superior to single-ended for both line-level sources – DACs and top-flight CD players – and pre-to-power amp connections. MC cartridges are inherently balanced. So why the wait?

Small Japanese specialist brands always fascinate me, due in part to my delight that they can co-exist with the Sony- and Panasonic-sized manufacturers. While every nation has its bijou marques, there's an uncanny aura to the likes of 47Lab, Shindo, Air Tight and Kondo, plus countless MC cartridge makers, that differentiates them from equally exotic producers from the UK, USA, Italy, Germany and beyond. Aurorasound could also only be Japanese, its VIDA MkII, an evolution of the VIDA [HFN Jul '13], ticking every box.