This is a quick review and measurements of the Hagerman Bugle2 DIY/Kickstarter Phono prempalifier/stage kit. It was kindly sent to me last year believe it or not! Alas, I am in the midst of evaluating a $40K headphone measurement gear so can't spend a lot of time on it. But thought I test it at least at high level. The PCB for this kit costs $39. Fully assembled kit during kickstarter was US $150. There seems to be a version 3 now.
The assembled version I received is in opaque housing which doesn't make for good pictures:
Here is a shot from kickstarter page:
NOTE: The manufacturer sent me another unit (slightly modified with dip switches) which produced much better results. See review of Bugle3:
Phono Stage Measurements
Here is our usual dashboard with 5 millivolt input:
Distortion is very much under control but one channel is a lot more noisy than the other. I tried different grounding schemes but did no good (red channel). That pushes the SINAD for that channel way low. The other channel has lower noise but major spike at mains 60 Hz which reduces its performance as well:
Since LPs have a ton of grove noise anyway, the above is probably not an issue in actual use. What is important is frequency response and RIAA equalization:
There seems to be a "rumble" filter to remove low frequencies which is probably wise. There is peaking in high frequencies so for younger folks, you may here slightly brighter sound above 10 kHz.
That's it.
Conclusions
There are excellent phono stages at budget prices so only get this kit if you want to have pride in building something yourself.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Yes, a $40,000 headphone measurement rig may be in our future. So if you were annoyed with me begging so far for money, you have seen nothing yet! So best get ahead of the curve by donating generously using : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The assembled version I received is in opaque housing which doesn't make for good pictures:
Here is a shot from kickstarter page:
NOTE: The manufacturer sent me another unit (slightly modified with dip switches) which produced much better results. See review of Bugle3:
Phono Stage Measurements
Here is our usual dashboard with 5 millivolt input:
Distortion is very much under control but one channel is a lot more noisy than the other. I tried different grounding schemes but did no good (red channel). That pushes the SINAD for that channel way low. The other channel has lower noise but major spike at mains 60 Hz which reduces its performance as well:
Since LPs have a ton of grove noise anyway, the above is probably not an issue in actual use. What is important is frequency response and RIAA equalization:
There seems to be a "rumble" filter to remove low frequencies which is probably wise. There is peaking in high frequencies so for younger folks, you may here slightly brighter sound above 10 kHz.
That's it.
Conclusions
There are excellent phono stages at budget prices so only get this kit if you want to have pride in building something yourself.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Yes, a $40,000 headphone measurement rig may be in our future. So if you were annoyed with me begging so far for money, you have seen nothing yet! So best get ahead of the curve by donating generously using : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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When did you start using that APx555 test unit? Have you decided to keep the Brüel & Kjær 5128 HATS system? I'm putting together the Wikipedia ASR entry and need to know if the Brüel & Kjær 5128 should be mentioned. I am mentioning the APx555. Is there other test equipment that should be mentioned?
