Phono Stage Upgrade Help

[richteer]

Originally Posted by mdabb

Although you have one hell of an AVR, moderately priced separates or integrateds (doesn't have to be expensive) will go above and beyond even the best of AVR's. I don't intend this to be an insult against AVR's, it's just that AVR's are really busy, compromises are made, & AVR's end up being a " jack of all trades, master of none" component that can put limitations on analog sources. Even when a great phono-pre is mated with a great AVR, the performance will still fall behind that of even modest 2ch setups. Add to the fact that you are considering a tube stage, those very tube characteristics very well may be void by what goes on in even the best of AVR's.

+1. A dedicated 2-channel integrated amp (or better, preamp and power amp separates, albeit at a bigger cost) will probably trounce an AVR in (or above) the same price bracket.