[tanchiro58]

I had a Softone 4 bought direct from Japan using two Sovtek 12AX7 LPS tubes but R-core OPTs. It is an excellent dead quiet phono stage and has choices of using low MC, high MC and MM cartridges (very convenient). Its sound is absolutely neutral with stock tubes but if you swap them with two Mullard 8137/CV4004 you will be in heaven. Check it out!

[toobluvr]

Interesting...
Where does one find info on this Softone unit? 
I just Googled it and found nothing.

[EARGASM]

Removed by member.

[sturgus]

Looks interesting.
http://www.icl.co.jp/audio/english/Model4/m4-1.htm

[tanchiro58]

Looks interesting.
http://www.icl.co.jp/audio/english/Model4/m4-1.htm

I can assure you the Softone 4 would beat the hell of the EAR 834P I own before with a fraction of the price!!!

[jmpiwonka]

i'm putting tgether a bugle right now...

hold me over until i see what the phono kit decware is going to release looks like. for me it's probably going to be that or the cornetII.

[chgolatin2]

Thanks guys, the Jolida looks promising  plus I dont have thousands to spend so my budget has to be way under 1k.  Softone looks nice but I never heard of it.

[Mariusz]

Looks interesting.
http://www.icl.co.jp/audio/english/Model4/m4-1.htm

I can assure you the Softone 4 would beat the hell of the EAR 834P I own before with a fraction of the price!!!

Looks interesting.
How long do you own this phono?????

[undertow]

Check out my link here... This thing even in stock form is scary quiet with a super low output MC cart.. You would not even know its on in most systems and its under 450 bucks...
Jolida Jd-9A new version modified
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=62730.0

[Scottdazzle]

The stock tubes in the Jolida JD-9a produce a harsher and grainier sound than I got from the EAR834p or the Music Reference RM-5ii.  I am going to substitute a pair of Electro Harmonix gold and will see what difference that makes.  I also removed the stock metal tube cases and substituted tube dampers.

[Browntrout]

I have spent a bit of effort reducing the background noise level in my tube phono/preamp (internal phonostage). Firstly it has a knob to turn for passive phono or active phono and with my cart the passive produces the most open sound. I have not tried it with very low output carts yet.
  To reduce the noise I have used cardas shielding caps for the spare unused sockets on the back, two of those cooldampers on the tubes inside and really good qulity mains cables (RF reducing) and passive mains filtering. These things I have found to lower the noise floor whilst retaining the complete tonal nature of the sound from valves.
  I think a SET phono gets the best from vinyl.

[Risky]

I have a dodd phono stage and it is dead quiet and sounds fantastic.

[CatchMeIfYouCan]

"Dead quiet" is a relative term. It is best to define it properly. So let say you turn up the preamp volume to your usual listening level with no song playing, by 'dead quiet', do you mean:

(1)you hear absolutely nothing from your listening position OR
(2)you hear absolutely nothing even when you place your ear next to the speaker drivers?

In some well-design solid state (or digital) phono/linestage, I have experienced (2). But as far as tube phono/linestage that I have listened to, (2) is impossible, and (1) is 'barely' possible provided that I sit more than 8 ft away from the speakers.

The other thing to note is, if 'dead quiet' is what you expect, then perhaps you should stick to digital. The playback noise of vinyl (surface noise, ticks, clicks..pops..) are often more pronounced than the background noise of your phono. I have been to a number of places where the owner claimed that their vinyl playbacks were 'dead quiet', but it turned out that their system were still not as 'dead quiet' as CD.
 

[jimdgoulding]

The stock tubes in the Jolida JD-9a produce a harsher and grainier sound than I got from the EAR834p or the Music Reference RM-5ii.  I am going to substitute a pair of Electro Harmonix gold and will see what difference that makes.  I also removed the stock metal tube cases and substituted tube dampers.

Watching for your impressions with interest.  Best wishes.

[Scottdazzle]

The stock tubes in the Jolida JD-9a produce a harsher and grainier sound than I got from the EAR834p or the Music Reference RM-5ii.  I am going to substitute a pair of Electro Harmonix gold and will see what difference that makes.  I also removed the stock metal tube cases and substituted tube dampers.

Watching for your impressions with interest.  Best wishes.

Jim,

Season's greetings!  The Electro Harmonix gold pin tubes and tube dampers (from Sandy Levy on eBay) together make a huge improvement. There is less apparent surface noise and vocals are noticeably less raspy and sibilant. It's also easier to pick out and follow the individual voices of background singers.  Lots of texture.

I don't know if I can attribute all of the improvement to the tubes or the tube dampers since I made both changes at the same time.  I know you're only supposed to deal with one variable at a time, but I like to spend some time listening for pleasure, too!  The EAR is better at micro and macro dynamics but the Jolida is getting better and it's about 1/4 the price of the EAR.

Scott

[JoshK]

I've been  reading a lot lately about the phono preamp problem (Morgan Jones + lots of websites like thorsten loesch, garry pimm's, etc).  From a technical perspective, 12ax7 is not up to the task for driving an rIaa corrector.  Looks like the softone sidesteps the issue by using a mosfet buffer (presumeably to drive the Eq). 

I am working on Gary Pimm's phono circuit with a few modernizations (per discussion with gary).  It uses high gm video tubes instead of the usual audio tubes.  You get high gain and more current for driving the eq, but the tube still doesn't drive the eq directly, instead the mu output of the Ccs is taken.  A bit like an alan kimmel mu circuit.