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Jim Hagerman designed Cornet 2 phono preamp is a Giant Killer!
$650 plus shipping


I built it 5 years ago per Hagerman's instructions. I have quite a few years of experience building electronics projects and this is a solid build. Hakko FX-888 soldering station and ring lighted magnifying glass used for all electrical connections. There are no cold solder joints or solder bridges in this build! Worked on first power up and has not missed a beat since.

I upgraded some of the caps to Auricaps (not cheap!) in critical locations per Jim's recommendation.

This phono preamp is an astonishing over-achiever. I used it with a Grado Reference Master cartridge on a Well Tempered Amadeus. This combo kicked digital out of the listening room. Its very responsive to high end interconnects and power cable upgrades.

I am selling because I just ordered Jim's Trumpet Classic phono pre.

Input supports hi level output from Moving Magnet / Moving Iron cartridges. If you have moving coil/low output cart, you will need a step up device, not included.

My system is only used during the weekends and I usually turn it off at night. I estimate this unit has about 2700 hours on it.

Jim sells the Cornet 3 for $459 with modern tubes, plastic case, solid state rectification and a wall wart power supply.

The metal case is as specified by Hagerman's Build of Materials, recommended power transformer and comes with a standard power cable. It also has the Auricap upgrades which cost about $180.

My Cornet 2 comes with the modern tubes I used for testing: Sovtek rectifier, ElectroHarminix 12AU7, and several vintage tubes including: two Amperex 12AX7 from the mid '60's. One has the partial orange globe Amperex lable, the other is an Amperex badged for another brand.

You will also get the Bendix 6106 Rectifier and a Mullard 12AU7 from the mid 1960's. The Bendix is a really long-lived tube with a slow start feature that extends the life of the other tubes in curcuit. You get better bass in the bargain as well. The Mullard is a lovely voiced tube and is a significant upgrade to the Electroharminix. Very low hours on the Mullard.

Tube Option

$500.00 additional ($1150 total)

Over the years I picked up some really great tubes and it's fun to do tube rolling.

This option includes the tubes below. You also have the tubes listed with the Cornet 2 above.

A second Bendix 6106. It never hurts to have a back up. Very low hours.
1 RCA 12AU7 Cleartop very low hours
1 RCA 12AU7 early 1950's, black plate low hours
2 RCA 12AX7 early 1950's black plate low hours
1 Amperex 12AX7 late 1950's my “go to” tube
1 Amperex 12AU7 Late 1950's my “go to tube”
All the vintage tubes were purchased from Andy Bowman at Vintage Tube Services. Triode sections are matched, but these are NOT matched pairs. Some of the tubes may be missing abels or are rebadged for other brands. I have the original invoices to back up this information.

If you want to add the Tube option, I will create another listing for them and it will be a separate sale.

Terms of all sales:

Buyer pays shipping

I pick up Paypal costs

US orders only, Hawaii and Alaska will have higher shipping costs than CONUS.

Buy through Audiogon listing
https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis94e6b-hagerman-cornet-2-cornet-2phono-preamp-tube

[Grinnell]

I have this too and it is fantastic.    Do you need to do any mods to use the Bendix 6106 Rectifier?  is it a direct swap with the standard Sovtek 5Y3GT?

Great buy

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This unit is optimized for the Bendix 6106. There is a 5 watt resistor ( I believe that is the wattage rating) that controls the voltage to the heater filaments. I don't recall the value but I was adjusting at the 100th of a volt level. Back in the Golden Age of tubes, no VOM had that kind of accuracy

It's hard to put this up for sale. I built it with my own 2 hands and have enjoyed spectacular music. It's like giving up one of my children.

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Giant killer phono preamp!