At long last the BA 420 phono stage is assembled and debugged - it isnt detailed on the Borbely Audio website but basically it is an upgraded version of the 419 basic phono stage with some of the ideas taken from the top of the range 319 BA phono stage. This version has the caddock upgrade. It comes with onboard regulators and a seperate basic psu. It would be interesting to compare that with never connected or super reg style PSU but I will leave that until I upgrade to the 319 phono. To hand I had a TEAD MG+ (my borthers) for comparison. I have also used a Brinkmann fein, groove and WNA unit in my system. Its only been on 12 hours but the sound is frankly superb. I can identify no apparent weakness and it wiped the floor with the TEAD MG+. The sound is extremely coherent and detailed but without being analytical. Total cost to me was around £750. I will post more impressions over the next few days. Rob and Tenson are coming at the w/e to try out the modded behringer and also a WAD phono and preamp for comparison. Should be interesting! Any other phonos welcome... I will also be installing the S&B transformer in the django and trying the 420 with and without an S&B stepup.
