Lehmannaudio Decade Phono Stage Review

[Haskil]

Rumble filters are very intentional in this model. They are used for 78's. The cut is for those frequencies that aren't even 'there' in the recording with 78's. Amir missed it this time and it's fairly-common knowledge. It's on many older preamps of the distant past. The interwebs have info.

The unit measures very well for a phono stage and being from another country outside of China, at an expected price point. LA is a small company and higher priced labor for the work performed. LA also has decades of brand identity, contributing to the price. It adds a rumble filter, which to older listeners adds functionality for 78's. It also sounds substantially better than a Project Phono Box. I've heard both.

For the 78 rpms, are you sure?

In this case, where are the different engraving curves used by the major record publishers in the United States and in Europe for the 78 rpms ?

And where are the curves used from the time of the monophonic LP before the use of a "universal" RIAA curve ?

In truth, this phono stage is of no interest compared to many others of significantly lower price and superior performance.
Its price is in no way the result of production in Europe: its price results from visible marketing choices which could have been completely different... and resulted in a much cheaper product for the same... low performances for a lover of 78 rpms and 33 rpms....


PS. Oops: I responded without having read the responses which immediately followed your questionable statement...

 

[JeremyFife]

Thanks for the review, I still find TT equipment interesting - like visiting a zoo
Looks pretty decent, odd filter choice and the headroom/clipping behaviour isn't great.
Can't accept the value for money though.

 

[DrCWO]

Please understand that for a balanced connection you only need a balanced input, not a balanced output.
Place an RCA to XLR adapter at the source end, done.

Please read this and notice that XLR also males a lot of sense at the output

Ground Loops 101

< Author's note: Like many of these articles, this one is about ten years old and could probably be updated. Maybe when I retire... Until then, the basic information should still prove useful. I hope. - Don > This article is to help show what causes those pesky ground loops many of us have had...

www.audiosciencereview.com

More about this here:

Grounding and Shielding Audio Devices

Since the Audio Engineering Society has adopted the "pin 2 is hot" standard, what is the correct use for pin 1?

www.ranecommercial.com

 

[KSTR]

Please read this am notice that XLR also males a lot of sense at the output

That's exactly what the adapter does. The offending stray currents are diverted to flow on the shield of the XLR cable and cannot do any harm. The balanced input senses the difference signal right at the source end, between the output conductor and the local ground which is exactly what we want.

If your are referring to this diagram, note that it is simplified and does not show the actual electrical situation.

 

[anmpr1]

I agree: if we then think that the shop often has skills, assistance and the possibility of demonstrating and lending components and warehouse, it is right that it is paid.

However, the upward trend in prices is now a fixed constant. Often accompanied by release.2.3.4 etc... which makes everything that was on the list until the day before, age in one fell swoop, not always with macroscopic improvements....

Dealer support was always welcome, but for the most part, that has gone away. At least in the two channel 'hi-fi' market--whatever remains of that. Perhaps it is different with whole home installations (home theater, security, lighting and so forth), where the dealer provides extensive set-up/networking capabilities that the average two-channel stereo listener does not require.

Back in the day dealers either worked on volume and/or exclusivity: the former meaning give-a-way pricing, the latter typically specializing in through the roof 'no discounts allowed' MSRP products. Sansui and Pioneer v ARC and Levinson. The mainstream press supported the first, the 'underground' hi-fi press the latter, all working as the unofficial marketing arm of the industry. Today, mail order (Amazon, Crutchfield etc) works the first angle, whereas a few specialty dealers cover the latter. Because of the lack of local dealer coverage, you can now buy the high priced spread using mail-order, from franchised dealers.

In consumer space we can turn to guitars for a sales lesson. Will that be the future of hi-fi? Or is that future now? In my area 'mom and pop' enthusiast guitar stores have abandoned the 'casual' player, taken to selling instruments that start around a thousand dollars. Why? Because Sweetwater has (as I type) over 300 new guitars hanging on their wall, from a dozen different brands, all selling for less than three hundred dollars, plus all with free shipping and return if you don't like it. In Europe you have Thomann, which sells their own house brand (Harley Benton--including guitars, amps, electric violins). What mom and pop can compete with that, locally?

But what is more interesting, is the move by manufacturers into direct sales. You can buy from Fender as cheap (or in some cases cheaper) than any dealer. Hi-fi? Benchmark comes to mind at the higher (but not over the top outrageous) end of the price spread. I'm sure that every luxury brand has had serious management meetings considering the idea of direct sales, cutting out dealers altogether. But at that end of the spectrum customers probably want to be wined and dined by a trad dealer. A woman who can afford a Chanel bag probably doesn't want to order it on-line, when she can have store help fawn over her.

As far as your point about point releases? I'm reminded of the late Bob Miller, erstwhile audio store owner who wrote the following to a once (in)famous audio magazine:

I find that most equipment is fair; much too high-priced; a lot of it comes in new and doesn't work; guarantees are limited; nothing stands up. Before a dealer gets delivery on a new item, the manufacturer is advertising a newer model--much better! They can bankrupt the average small dealer, making new models every week. Don't ever try to get a part...

 

[Mikig]

Trovo che la maggior parte delle attrezzature sia giusta; troppo costoso; molte di esse vengono nuove e non funzionano; le garanzie sono limitate; niente si alza. Prima che un rivenditore riceva la consegna di un nuovo articolo, il produttore sta pubblicizzando un modello più recente, molto meglio! Possono mandare in bancarotta il piccolo rivenditore medio, facendo nuovi modelli ogni settimana. Non cercare mai di ottenere una parte..

I had a great friend who had a hi-fi shop, and I can tell you that these words are the same ones I heard from him...
I had the opportunity to collaborate with him, as an enthusiast, for a few years in my free time, and I have felt these situations firsthand.
In fact, in recent years, before closing the business, he had almost decided to concentrate on repairs and used devices .
He boasted 50 years of experience.
But the web was stronger than his experience.

Today's street? start making reviews like a shopkeeper, thus living on various social networks, or try to carve out an almost atelier-like niche.
The first work on large volumes, with "premium" brands (sorry if I used this horrible word, the result of today's society, which cares more about social recognition than substance).
The latter deal more with "esoteric" ( sorry for the second bad word).
The third way? direct sales, of the new.

Yes, the classic shop we all grew up with no longer exists!!

 

[HonestSonics]

The price to performance here seems really out of whack tbh. I have an NJC phonostage built by a small company in the UK, just over £500 (for the MM unit + separate power supply) a couple of years ago. 0.1dB RIAA deviation, cross talk similar to the Lehman, better distortion and overload margins:

Input Impedance: 47K & 100K
Input Capacitance: 22pF to 330pF
Maximum Input Level: 330mV (low) / 194mV (med) / 93mV (high)
Maximum Output Level: (Input = 5mV) 150mV (low) / 300mV (med) / 620mV (high)

Frequency Response: 10Hz - 50kHz
Total Harmonic Distortion: <0.002% (1kHz) / 0.002% (10kHz) / 0.003% (20kHz)
Stereo Crosstalk: (Corrected RIAA) -96dBu (1kHz) / -76dBu (10kHz) / -72dBu (20kHz)
RIAA Accuracy: 20Hz to 10kHz <0.05dB / 11kHz to 20kHz <0.1dB

 

[Ted G]

Q: if you double blind tested this against the Schiit option- could you tell the difference?

 

[Daviede]

Does this refer to ART Precision Phono Pre?

 

[Listener#1]

The crapshoot that is 78 LP equalization, doesn't lend itself to optimal playback on this pre-amp. You would need a much more programmable phono stage which would then include both low and high cut filters.

Many companies took this one filter only approach throughout the last decades. Whether it's a Luddite behavior or not, it's par for the course and the decided to include it. This bass filter is with a gentle 6dB-per-octave roll-off at 50Hz.

 

[Listener#1]

I stated rumble filter. I didn't state a 78 LP equalization.

 

[Wiredforsound]

I highly doubt that, to be honest. For 78s, you would want a much higher-order filter, with a cutoff frequency slightly below 50Hz, as a lot of the LF disturbances are raised up through the spectrum by the higher relative velocity of the groove. This product would be horribly unsuitable for the 78s for the following reasons...

• A very high overload margin of well over 100mV is necessary due to the size of surface imperfections and their velocity (MM cartridges are velocity to voltage converters), especially at higher frequencies, and especially given that the kind of re-tipped DJ cartridges we are going to use for 78s if we are serious are approaching resonance as low as 17kHz. This phono preamp fails quite spectacularly in this regard at higher frequencies.
• Multiple playback curves are required, or at least a toggle switch to select British (300Hz/6400Hz) and American (RIAA 500Hz/2122Hz) characteristics to be able to play 90% of 78s with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
• A mono switch is also necessary to 78s, to cancel vertical noise picked up by stereo cartridges, which is very distracting indeed.
• Some sort of higher-order switchable low-pass filter will also be needed to stop out of band noise from distracting the listener above 7kHz or so, especially given cartridge resonances in the 15kHz to 20kHz region.

While it is true that some relatively costly parts have evidently been used, I don't feel that the price is justified considering the holistic performance. It seems apparent to me that these parts have been selected for their 'street cred' and the real job of engineering them together to give a decent result has been overlooked. We could build something substantially better than this using judiciously-placed SMD chip resistors, NJM4580s, and some C0G SMT capacitors for a parts cost of less than 2% of this product's retail price.

78's well I may be able to play them after all on a more modern system, than the portable player my Dad's friend left him, which I now am the owner of.
Can play the original Whole Lot A Love and Big Ten Inch Record that Aerosmith redid. Lol.

Just never could stand the sound on anything other than the portable player.

Now I know a bit more why.

Thank you
Michael

 

[Wiredforsound]

The price to performance here seems really out of whack tbh. I have an NJC phonostage built by a small company in the UK, just over £500 (for the MM unit + separate power supply) a couple of years ago. 0.1dB RIAA deviation, cross talk similar to the Lehman, better distortion and overload margins:

Input Impedance: 47K & 100K
Input Capacitance: 22pF to 330pF
Maximum Input Level: 330mV (low) / 194mV (med) / 93mV (high)
Maximum Output Level: (Input = 5mV) 150mV (low) / 300mV (med) / 620mV (high)

Frequency Response: 10Hz - 50kHz
Total Harmonic Distortion: <0.002% (1kHz) / 0.002% (10kHz) / 0.003% (20kHz)
Stereo Crosstalk: (Corrected RIAA) -96dBu (1kHz) / -76dBu (10kHz) / -72dBu (20kHz)
RIAA Accuracy: 20Hz to 10kHz <0.05dB / 11kHz to 20kHz <0.1dB

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Only ships UK.
£589 +£17 shipping.
To bad.

 

[Michael Fidler]

Only ships UK.
£589 +£17 shipping.
To bad.

Those boys need to start sending things worldwide and triple their revenue! A Wise account (or Bitcoin wallet) + Royal Mail 'Click and Drop' is all you really need.

 

[Wiredforsound]

Those boys need to start sending things worldwide and triple their revenue! A Wise account (or Bitcoin wallet) + Royal Mail 'Click and Drop' is all you really need.

Maybe you should go visit.

 

[Michael Fidler]

Maybe you should go visit.

Something tells me that I might not be welcomed with open arms! I've no experience with this one, but a lot of the UK small companies are run by amateurs who've convinced themselves that they're geniuses and have some kind of special knowledge that can never be questioned without a flat response of 'proprietary' + poorly-worded cease and desist letter. I'm more interested in what I can do at this point...

 

[Wiredforsound]

There's a great take on an Englishman entering an audio store.
The abuse until he had enough, spoof, but based on truth, as it wasn't just England .

This company is established in a beautiful region Van Morrison even wrote a song about it.
Haunts Of Ancient Peace, Summertime In England and In The Garden.
William Blake too.
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?

 

[DSJR]

Those boys need to start sending things worldwide and triple their revenue! A Wise account (or Bitcoin wallet) + Royal Mail 'Click and Drop' is all you really need.

With you around, no need really

 

[Michael Fidler]

With you around, no need really

They look pretty competent, to be fair. Nicely put together and clearly a lot of attention paid to doing the metalwork in-house!

0.05dB RIAA is not an easy task - they should definitely send one into ASR. I get the feeling that they would prefer a comfortable flow of orders and the extra diversity of work that they've cut out for themselves rather than a more ballistic type of situation.

 

[Wiredforsound]

Yes we have our choices, which road to take.