Phono stages around $1000?

[JohnVF]

John, glad your choice has settled in and that you're happy with it. I have a Schiit Mani but it hasn't been used much based on the location of the system it is used in. I am contemplating moving it to another system so it gets used.

I found it better than it should be for the price but just wonder what other's have experienced with it. Sure has a lot of versatility built in and I should look for a better power supply.

Any other impressions on it?

There was one of those on one of the sale sites this month, WITH a linear power supply, for a pretty cheap price. I was seriously tempted but don't have a need here. I'd love to hear more about it, especially with the power supply. It's supposed to be a very musical piece.

 

[JohnVF]

Actually its still on USaudiomart. A mani and the swagman labs 16v AC linear power supply for $200. I haven't heard the Mani but that seems like a great deal. The LPS on my ifi iPhono2 made a really nice improvement.

 

[BobA]

Thanks for the suggestion but I already had a Mani so I ordered a new Swagman from HK.

Should have just bought the one on USaudiomart so I had two outboard phono stages but...... hindsight is always better.

More later.

 

[JohnVF]

Thanks for the suggestion but I already had a Mani so I ordered a new Swagman from HK.

Should have just bought the one on USaudiomart so I had two outboard phono stages but...... hindsight is always better.

More later.

Very cool. I've been quite curious as to how that phono stage would work with a linear power supply. The ifi went from being a very good entry level stage to just an overall excellent phono stage, period. The Primare that I'm using is a bit more rounded and full, the only reason it got the job. The ifi was easy to live with for the months that I was using it. It's still here, destined for one of the setups.

 

[BobA]

I finally hooked up my new Swagman Labs LPS to my Schiit Mani phono section in my modest but somewhat modern living room system. NAD 326BEE integrated (no phono section), old NAD 4020 tuner and NAD C16BEE CD player playing through ELAC Uni-Fi B5 speakers on sturdy stands. Cables are BJC throughout. I use a Revox B795 in this system as it is there largely for winter entertaining and its convenience is wonderful.

While I had to repair the Revox it has always sounded much better than I thought it should. Before trying the new Mani/Swagman combo, I decided to finally replace the stylus on the Grado Signature 8MR mounted on the Revox. It has needed it for a long time.

I bought a new replacement Grado 8MZ stylus several years ago but I couldn't get the old worn out stylus out of the body of the installed 8MR. Since the Revox arm is pretty delicate, I didn't want to yank on it too hard to get it unseated from the cartridge body. Grado styli are installed in the cartridge body at a funny diagonal angle with the black goo Grado uses to seat the stylus so I couldn't wrestle the old worn-out stylus out of the installed body. I know most would cringe at replacing the stylus on a mounted Revox arm, but I figured it would be far easier than uninstalling it and trying to reinstall it. However, yesterday after I finally found the Grado supplied stylus removal tool, I went at it again and was successful (and delicate).

How do these two improvements sound? All I can say is that the Mani/Swagman combo is a very nice combo but so is the new stylus. So very little noise from the phono section and record noise is much reduced too.

More later.