Professional’s Ranking
Professionals
- Works with each MM and MC phono cartridges
- Advance optimization choices for MM cartridges
- Heat, detailed sound
Cons
- Included RCA cable is a bit brief
Our Verdict
The Andover SpinStage actually shines when used with higher-priced cartridges, however this phono pre-amp can improve any turntable’s sound, and it could develop with upgrades to your home-audio system.
Andover Audio, a Massachusetts firm identified for manufacturing high-quality, entry-level turntables and speaker techniques, has added the SpinStage phono pre-amp to its lineup. The SpinStage is an excellent audio element that delivers a shocking variety of options and nice sound for the value.
This assessment is expounded to TechHive’s in-depth protection of the best turntables.
Numerous turntables function a built-in phono stage nowadays, however there are many causes to think about using a discrete unit as an alternative. The primary—and most evident—is that you simply personal a classic turntable and a receiver and neither of them have phono phases. The second is that you simply’ve upgraded the cartridge in your present turntable in an effort squeeze bit extra life out of it earlier than committing to an costly improve, however its onboard pre-amp is holding it again. The third is that you simply’re prepared for that costly improve, and also you wish to get a terrific phono pre-amp at an affordable value.
The SpinStage sounds nice, and because it helps each shifting magnet (MM) and shifting coil (MC) cartridges, it’s versatile sufficient to help years and even a long time of turntable swapping and hi-fi experiments.
The aim of a phono pre-amp
James Barber/Foundry
The sign coming out of your turntable’s stylus and cartridge requires a lift to be loud sufficient to work along with your audio system. It’s essentially the most important stage within the vinyl audio chain, and a step the place undesirable noise might be launched into the listening expertise.
If you wish to know why CDs have been so thrilling again in 1982, it was as a result of digital was speculated to get rid of all of the rumble from unbalanced turntables and electrical noise from dodgy phono phases.
An efficient phono pre-amp will amplify the sign to match the trade commonplace RIAA curve with out introducing any undesirable noise into the listening expertise.
Shifting magnet and shifting coil cartridge help
The SpinStage helps each shifting magnet and shifting coil phono cartridges. The cartridge is the digital unit that sits on the finish of the tonearm. The stylus plugs into the cartridge, which sends the unamplified sign to the phono pre-amp.
James Barber/Foundry
A shifting magnet cartridge is essentially the most kind you’ll discover on an entry-level turntable. It makes use of a magnet in a coil of wires. Because the stylus traces the report’s grooves, the magnet strikes to generate {the electrical} sign that shall be boosted by the pre-amp. Such a cartridge generates increased output than a shifting coil; nevertheless it’s additionally heavier, so it’s much less able to monitoring subtleties within the grooves. Again on the optimistic aspect, it’s simpler to exchange the stylus on a shifting magnet cartridge.
A shifting coil cartridge reverses the equation: The magnet is stationary, and the tremendous coil strikes in response to the stylus motion within the grooves of the vinyl. This enables the cartridge to be lighter, however the sign it generates requires much more amplification in comparison with a shifting magnet cartridge.
This can be a simplified clarification of how the vinyl audio chain works. The necessary factor to notice right here is that the SpinStage is flexible sufficient to work with a shifting magnet cartridge, and it could nonetheless be helpful in case you ever swap to a shifting coil.
Andover Audio SpinStage design
James Barber/Foundry
The SpinStage is a lovely piece of drugs with a bead-blasted, anodized aluminum case. There’s an RCA auxiliary enter, so you should utilize the field as a pass-through to an amplifier or pre-amp with a restricted variety of inputs.
There are additionally separate RCA inputs for turntables which have both shifting magnet or shifting coil cartridges. A selector swap on the again allows you to select between these two choices. With lengthy sufficient cables, you may doubtlessly join two turntables if one had a shifting coil and the opposite had a shifting magnet cartridge, however the location of the swap would make it laborious to trip between the 2.
There’s a floor wire connection and a confusingly labeled RCA “aux out” connection for sending the sign to your amplifier, pre-amp, or receiver. An influence swap on the entrance panel additionally toggles between turntable and auxiliary inputs. An LED standing gentle glows white for phono and inexperienced for aux.
James Barber/Foundry
The auxiliary port acts as a direct passthrough, in order that sign shouldn’t be touched by the SpinStage’s inner electronics. Phono processing consists of remoted dual-mono circuitry to attenuate crosstalk and maximize stereo imaging.
There’s additionally a separate MC acquire stage with ultra-low-noise discrete transistors. This sort of transconductance topology is usually discovered solely in dearer designs. There aren’t any capacitors within the phono stage’s direct sign path, which reduces distortion and qualifies as one other function not normally discovered at this value.
Superior tinkering choices
The SpinStage permits the listener to regulate the enter resistance and capacitance to match the values advisable by the shifting magnet cartridge producer. A collection of DIP switches on the underside of the unit might be flipped to regulate the settings. It’s a considerate function, even when it’s not one thing the overwhelming majority of SpinStage customers will ever want to think about. If you happen to’re drifting as much as the shifting magnet cartridge heights that can require an adjustment right here, you’ll know from all of the analysis you probably did earlier than dropping the money on that new cartridge.
So why has Andover Audio included such a function? As a result of the SpinStage is designed to be versatile sufficient to help all kinds of cartridges with options that aren’t in any other case accessible in a phono stage at this value level.
Listening to the Andover Audio SpinStage
James Barber/Foundry
I examined the SpinStage 3 ways: I first related my Technics SL-1200 direct-drive turntable with an Ortofon OM 10 MM cartridge and stylus to the Spinstage, which I then plugged right into a NAD S100 stereo preamplifier and a NAD 2400 Monitor Sequence amplifier related to B&W P5 floor-standing audio system.
Listening to a 180-gram urgent of the 2016 remaster of David Bowie’s 1972 LP The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, there was a direct improve intimately when in comparison with the NAD PP-1 phono pre-amp I’d been utilizing earlier than. There was longer decay on chiming guitar components and higher separation of particular person drums on the low finish.
I subsequent switched to the Fluance RT81 belt-drive turntable, which comes with an Audio Technica AT95E cartridge and a built-in phono stage that may be shut off if desired. The AT95E is an excellent entry-level cartridge, nevertheless it’s nonetheless on the decrease finish of the audiophile curve.
Fluance’s built-in phono stage is excellent, so I used to be particularly curious to see if the SpinStage might make a distinction with the AT95E. The distinction was not dramatic, however the SpinStage provided noticeable enchancment over the Fluance phono stage.
Is the Andover Audio SpinStage a worthwhile funding?
What’s the takeaway from all of this? The higher the cartridge in your turntable, the higher the SpinStage will sound. In different phrases, this pre-amp will maintain tempo with upgrades to the remainder of your own home audio system for a superb very long time—or at the very least till you’re able to make the leap to turntables and phono pre-amps that price 1000’s of {dollars}.
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