Rocky Mountain Audio Fest: Affordable Battery-Powered Phono Stage
October 22nd, 2006 — By Robert Harley
Acclaimed designer Ron Sutherland has taken the circuit ideas from his terrific $3000 PhD battery-powered phono preamp and created a $1000 version with some clever tricks to reduce the build cost. For example, the battery holder is formed by bending the chassis metal. The array of conventional “D� cells last 1250 hours. Battery power results in lower noise, which is particularly important in a phono stage. The unit has adjustable gain and cartridge loading, high-quality input and output jacks, and high-end components.
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I’ve heard the PhD and it is an excellent piece. Is this basically the same circuit?
Comment by Tom Martin October 23rd, 2006 @ 1:02 pmUnfortunately, the circuit is less elaborate in the new Ph3D, but Sutherland told me he tried to keep as much of the circuit’s fundamentals as he could at the one-third-the-price Ph3D. He had the two units side-by-side with their tops off and the PhD was clearly a more thoroughly realized design.
Robert Harley
Comment by Robert Harley October 23rd, 2006 @ 7:06 pmI would like to know if this phonostage actually can manage tio amplify demanding MC cartridges and if so
will it draw more power say like battery lasts 1250 h if MM stage but 800 with MC?
The cartridge like Benz ACE low 0,4 or grasshopper from VDH.
Comment by Morgan October 24th, 2006 @ 3:09 amThe Ph3D has enough gain for moving coil cartridges. The batteries should last the same amount of time regardless of the gain setting.
Robert Harley
Comment by Robert Harley October 24th, 2006 @ 10:19 amdo you intend to review the new Sutherland pre-amp and perhaps compare it to other proven pre-amps such as the Lucaschek PP1?
Comment by Leroy Sinclair November 2nd, 2006 @ 11:32 amWe have a review scheduled of the Ph3D, and we intend to compare it with similarly priced phono stages. I don’t know that we have Lucaschek PP1 still available to us.
Robert Harley
Comment by Robert Harley November 2nd, 2006 @ 5:57 pm