I heard the Budgie MM phono stage over the weekend and was absolutely floored at how good it was. Given its budget price, I guess I had low expectations. I try to avoid this reaction, as I'm constantly on the lookout for great performing / reasonably priced gear from small boutique companies, but I guess sometimes I succumb to audio snobbery.
Inserted it into my small rig that I use for relaxed nearfield listening at night, and it absolutely crushed my integrated's (Copland CSA 28) onboard phono section. Not even close. Didn't compare it directly with my nice JuicyMusic tubed phono sections (Tercel outboard, Blueberry preamp onboard) in the same rig, but I get the sense it's every bit as good, if not better.
Sweet, round, warm with plenty of detail and drive. The soundstage was big and layered. Big rich tone, textured and palpable, with nice image density. Music sounded really alive had nice pace and flow and hung together in a natural coherent way, but the individual threads were still easy to hear (but not in a surgical / analytical way). To my ear it had all the good qualities of vintage toob sound, without the negatives of soft / fat / bloated / dark/ veiled. Really pulls you into the music.
And this was with the nothing special EH 6922 stock tubes. IME it's a really nice sounding unit, at a giveaway price.
System: Townshend Rock 3 / Linn Ittok / Cartridge Man Music Maker mk3, Copland CSA 28 integrated, JMR Twins Mk3 (using Vaughn Triode self-powered bottom section for LF support, low-passed at 80 hz), Morrow cabling
