Phono preamp "sound"

[Mnyb]

It is somewhat irritating to hear hiss as soon as you switch to phono . As always happens with all the normal amps I owned over the years probably due to much gain everywhere so I’m quite happy with the Cambridge phono stage combination with WiiM it is ofcourse noiser than any of the digital inputs, but you have to get really close to a speaker to notice

 

[Cote Dazur]

It is somewhat irritating to hear hiss as soon as you switch to phono

I never that that issue with any of my system over the last 50 years.
I must be born lucky.

 

[EERecordist]

I don't listen to much vinyl (yet ) but am curious about a phono preamp's influence on "sound". Having been here for almost a year I've learned that an amp should be auditorily invisible (unless you like the 2nd order harmonics of tubes), and that a preamp should just essentially be a input switch (unless you are using it to "color" your sound).......but.......I built a phono pre (Pearl 3) for fun, and when I dropped the needle just to see if it worked, I raised an eyebrow because the damn thing sounded "clearer" than before. A lot clearer......against my "knowing better" and really zero expectation bias (wink, wink). It was replacing a no-name little box, but I wouldn't have expected a difference?

Anecdotal, I know (with a sample of n=1), but with all the spirited discussions surrounding vinyl (cartridge types/models etc.), I wondered if the preamp could be an influence?

Have you looked at ASR measurements of phono preamps?

Search Reviews > Electronics > phono.

Vinyl is very limited by noise floor, tracking distortion, frequency response, and cutting chain distortion.

I think a well enough performing phono preamp, turntable, and cartridge is not that expensive. If you need a moving coil transformer, i would choose that with care.

 

[Rickysa]

Have you looked at ASR measurements of phono preamps?

Oddly enough, two years ago out host tested the unit I bought many moons ago (I just found out yesterday )

 

[HalSF]

That said, since vinyl is, after cylinders and 78 rpm records, the least faithful format, you'll have to take into account the wear and tear on the record between listening sessions.

Gotta take issue with this. A frequently repeated commonplace in vinyl discussion is the idea that audible wear and degradation of sound quality begins immediately and that the damage increases inexorably with every subsequent play. It’s not true. Records can be played and still sound great for decades.

Property calibrated cartridges of decent quality on a good turntable don’t damage vinyl, at least not in a timeframe that matters. People tend to extrapolate from the fact that used vinyl tends to be dirty, noisy, and scuffed and scratched up, but the vast majority of that is down to careless handling and rough treatment, not merely because the record may have been played dozens or hundreds of times.