Phono Stages
Cary Audio Designs is one of the premiere high end designers and manufacturers of tube amps and preamps, DVD and CD players, home theater processors and amplifiers, and specialty electronics for the audiophile. Receiver of numerous awards throughout the years, their equipment design and quality is second to none.
Creek is a British intermediate level high end manufacturer of solid state electronics geared for the audiophile on a budget. Superb sonics coupled with solid stable circuitry put Creek way ahead of the pack for musicality and reliability. Creek has won numerous awards over the years for their products.
Jolida is famous for their wide tube product line. High quality construction, wonderful warm sound, and great flexiblity of design are their hallmarks. Their JD9 Standard ($450) is a great phonostage with good depth and space between the instruments, a definite upgrade from Bellari’s and lesser units. The Upgraded JD9 ($650) is a huge jump over the Standard, much more depth and air. It has ESA Clarity caps, Hexfred diodes, Tungsol Gold pin 12AX7, and more. The best I have heard under $1000.
Quasar 1
Heed is a small manufacturer of affordable high grade amps, phono stages, and headphone amps. Build quality is excellent and the phonostage has the ability to compensate for impedance and capacitance, rarely done at the $1000 price level. The presentation is with a black background with the instruments floating in space with lots of air around them in a 3D soundstage. The imaging is pinpoint.
Whest is a British manufacturer of premium quality audio signal solutions such as phono stages, discrete analog processors, and amplifiers. They do extensive research and take a radical approach in the design of their components.
ZestoWe are proud to offer the Zesto Andros PS1 Phonostage for demo and purchase. We now have it in our main system with the Fieckert Blackbird Turntable and TriPlanar tonearm with the Transfiguration Phoenix cartridge. It is a tube unit using 12AX7 tubes, high quality internal parts, and is made in the USA. Unique to this piece are the balanced XLR MC inputs as an option. It also has a wide selection of Loads for MC cartridges, down to 20 Ohms and up to 1000 ohms. Outputs are RCA only. Come and hear and see it at our shop in Roseville.