4krow

I actually had to tell my own brother to stop acting guilty about something that he did not do. OTOH all you have to do is be accused.

Let neither your successes nor failures ever be due to a lack of effort Made this one up myself when raising kids.

FWIW, I can tell you at least two different phono preamps that I had issues with. First is the Vincent PHO8. Has a separate power supply and everything. Quiet as a mouse, but not engaging or musical. I kind of had the same experience with one of their preamps too. Then there is the famous Jolida JD9 which has great sound, but the unit that I got used had a slight hum problem. Ok, let's just skip to the end. Don't do it. I lost my ass on this whole deal. Now I don't recommend going expensive like I did (expensive for me anyway). I ended up with a Glass ware Audio product that I built that was more of PITA than anyone can imagine. Again, not to tell the whole story over again, but a bad bad idea for me! To do over again, the Pete Millett phono pre and yes, power it with battery. Oops, there is one catch though. I don't recall the PM phono to have much in the way of adjustment. Dammit. See? I thought that I had you covered, sorry. I will sleep on it. FWIW, if you are a builder, that sort of thing can be accomplished with extra effort. OTD had it right in the first place. There are multiple listings for the Musical Surrounding Nova II phono preamp at eBay. $480 and up.

That is exactly the beauty of such an animal. Some will want to discuss battery noise, but I never had any such issue. Especially in a phono preamp where the gain is high and the AC line current is a cat and mouse thing in some cases. Even the Pete Millett phono pre has a way to be battery operated. Not a new idea but a damned good one.

Battery powered too! My favorite kind of phono set up.

Good point on flexibility. What is your budget?

God, have I ever been through the ninth circle of phono preamp hell. I could be a tour guide. One choice that is not a deal breaker money wise is a Pete Millett design. I tried maybe 4 different preamps, all good names, and that would be my first choice for maybe $500. I built two of them just they are kind of fun. Unlike the other beasts that I had to whip.

Crap, this is just like the good old days when Quad was king.

Welcome and buyer beware is not saying that you should shy away from a good deal, but that you need to be aware of the downside to buying anything used. Anyone who has owned a car gets this. It is great that the unit is fully functional if the seller's description of fully functional is the same as yours. Many of us here buy used noting that it will be rebuilt at least to some degree, making it worthwhile if the price is right. When I buy a C-9 to restore, I don't care if it works or not, but that is different than what you are needing here for condition of product.

Reply to this thread to help out in your post count.

I appreciate your writing this. There are some real showstoppers in life if you will just notice them. Trouble is many people just walk by. It was very rare that I heard good audio in an audio shop. It became a chore for them to set up multiple systems in different rooms to try and encourage potential buyers. In fact most stores ended up by just trying to produce more bass. Yah, that led many right to the front. I like that you were simply taking a break and heard something that made you stop. A distraction (usually women) can change your life.

On a rare Sunday, I will try and listen to something that ranks with the worst. It might be like watching a really bad movie to the end. But even in that attempt, I will find something that I can't really hate because it came out the way that the artist intended. This leads me to wonder who/what possessed them to write the way that they did. It is an opposing view which I may learn from if I give it a chance. In my case it was the Mahavishnu Orchestra's album Apocalypse. Really difficult to hear such tension in music, yet it has a message. Is this akin to Beefheart?

I am also an Alf57 as it were Welcome brother Alf. 57 was a good year, I think. What audio experiences do you remember from your youth?

I wonder just how many people now wince when there hear DSOTM. I never wanted to get to that stage, since, in some ways I consider it to be one of the best albums that I own. I have a different problem though. If I hear an album, it sticks with me. I mean it really stays put, but not in whole. Part of a drum solo here, or a partial set of lyrics, and round and round it goes, sometimes for days. I have to stop listening to music for a while and the lightly tread back in. Here is a bigger nightmare. Some of the musical carousel is crap from ads, or marches that I played in marching band, and lots of meaningless stuff. Very little of it is the whole song, just bits.

Ok, time for pictures. we want pictures.