Phono Preamplifiers

It’s unlikely you’ll find a larger or more sturdily built phono stage under £1,000, but does big always mean better?

It’s been a while since the digital maestro released a phono stage, but it’s certainly well worth the wait

As a cut-down version of Parasound’s flagship phono preamp, the Halo JC3 Jr. is a flexible option

The more affordable of Pro-Ject’s range of MM/MC phono stages is taken for a spin

The long-running Triton phono stage gets a welcome update

Although not known for my soldering iron skills, I’ve dabbled in DIY – especially in my earlier years of hi-fi addiction. Before I became a scribe, I managed to destroy a number of perfectly good components by ‘modifying’ them. I now know that whatever my talents may be, they don’t extent to re-engineering consumer electronic devices. Yet it was a fascinating learning curve, even if my greatest lesson was to stop messing around.

Committed to vinyl replay long before the current popularity of the medium, Creek Audio’s OBH range of phono stages has been around for 25 years. The OBH-8mk2 is the latest iteration of the design and is the entry-level model in the range, sitting just below the long-running £300 OBH-15mk2 (HFC 407). The OBH-8mk2 is a straightforward moving-magnet phono stage with fixed loading and no user adjustments. The new design uses an integrated circuit for the gain stage powered by a 24V supply, which is something that has been present on OBH designs since their inception.