Michael Fidler Spartan 20 Phono Stage Review

[Purité Audio]

If you need any help reducing sales I am an expert.
Seriously though very impressed with your designs and you are my automatic recommendation if anyone asks about phono stages.
Best,
Keith

 

[Mnyb]

There was a sale on the Cambridge Alva duo ( mm and mc ).

* good test here at ASR of previous versions.
* 25% off
* because i cant decide on what kind of pickup to get
* it has rumble filter +/- 0.3dB 30Hz-20kHz , on all the time ( exact corner freq unknown to me . )
* 100pf
* >30dB overload margin , in reference to what i don't know apply the usual grains of salt, but at least they dare to spec this ?

 

[DVinylfan]

Grateful for M Fidler and his superbly designed and executed phono preamps, not to mention showing up here in person to help members find their way to better vinyl replay.
So it feels impertinent to ask: the Fosi Audio Box X5 phono has a SINAD of 86 and supports MM and MC, for €109.
Will the Classic Audio phono preamps be audibly more transparent in use?

 

[Mnyb]

Grateful for M Fidler and his superbly designed and executed phono preamps, not to mention showing up here in person to help members find their way to better vinyl replay.
So it feels impertinent to ask: the Fosi Audio Box X5 phono has a SINAD of 86 and supports MM and MC, for €109.
Will the Classic Audio phono preamps be audibly more transparent in use?

The Fosi does not have a rumble filter/ high pass ? Or the very nifty “cross-feed” for the bass . Or the active loading etc etc .

So I guess it depends ? I think it’s problematic to omit the high pass filter this can make a difference in practice.
If you have PEQ in your system you can probably DIY a filter yourself and make up for that .

wonder if not a Spartan would be even quieter with an actual cartridge conected ? I’m guessing.
The records themselves are noisy to ? I have limited experience on how quiet it needs to bee ,to bee good enough in practice .

I think other RIAA can match on some metrics including the little Fosi , but it’s the total package that wins the day ? Add quality and serviceability on top.
It’s actually a SOTA product everyone could stretch to buy , hence why he is swamped with orders .

Affordable SOTA DAC can be provided by dozens of factories around the world. Affordable SOTA RIAA is currently made by one guy ?

 

[Michael Fidler]

The Fosi does not have a rumble filter/ high pass ? Or the very nifty “cross-feed” for the bass . Or the active loading etc etc .

So I guess it depends ? I think it’s problematic to omit the high pass filter this can make a difference in practice.
If you have PEQ in your system you can probably DIY a filter yourself and make up for that .

wonder if not a Spartan would be even quieter with an actual cartridge conected ? I’m guessing.
The records themselves are noisy to ? I have limited experience on how quiet it needs to bee ,to bee good enough in practice .

I think other RIAA can match on some metrics including the little Fosi , but it’s the total package that wins the day ? Add quality and serviceability on top.
It’s actually a SOTA product everyone could stretch to buy , hence why he is swamped with orders .

Affordable SOTA DAC can be provided by dozens of factories around the world. Affordable SOTA RIAA is currently made by one guy ?

You could always just make your own one. If my other ventures do what I want them to do in 2026, I'll finish the project at by the end of that year and put the full design files out.

 

[Mnyb]

You could always just make your own one. If my other ventures do what I want them to do next year, I'll kill the project and put the full design files out.

totally beyond me at the moment thankyou anyway , but i'll guess someone else would be really extremely grateful awesome !

 

[Billy Budapest]

Really fantastic measurements. If you want to eek out all the performance you can out of vinyl—knowing that the actual playback medium will never come close to the noise, distortion, frequency response, and wow & flutter performance of digital—this would be one of the phono stages you want.