I have finally found a phono-stage that will play music the way I like them -- Aesthetix Io mkII. It took me 3 weeks to get the tubes right. I got it used and JJ tubes came with the power stage but the phono section came with EH tubes. It took me every last 12ax7s I had in reserve to outfit the phono section: 2 Siemens 6922; 4 Telefunken, 2 Mullard, 4 Amperex, 2 Valvo 12ax7s; and 2 Sylvania 6SN7GT's. I called Andy at Vintage Tube Service and he told me the cost to re-tube Io from scratch with premium NOS tubes suitable for LOMC set up would be $2K. Well, I though I would try my hand at using my tubes. I am happy with what I got. It took a lot of time identifying microphonic tubes. I also had several OS tubes go belly up.
But I finally got everything in order and the result is the best vinyl sound I ever got in my room.
It's has no feedback and there is some background noise from 3 successive amplification stages. This is the reason I was looking for a passive preamp. With Wayne's quasi-passive (Burson buffer with 6 dB gain) mod on Bent resistor preamp, the background noise is low. It was more with Modwright SWL 9.0 with tube rectification in the chain. What it does when playing vinyl is just fabulous. I didn't know music could be played like this in my room. Same records played but I am getting so much more out of them with the Io. I hear more details in treble but what I really hear more is the thickness of the music. Everything is so robust and full. This thing is an emotional amplifier. I get so emotionally connected to music. All the carts benefit although Koetsu among my carts gets the most synergistic boost. Ruby 3 really improves with fullness and even ZYX Airy gets "phat." I am listening to Colossus right now and the Sax is just SINGING. Damn good stuff.
Highly recommended.
