Riverside P2 phono stage - anyone heard of it?

Dunc with £200 spend, have you considered a GSP gram amp2, or the SE version, or even stretch to the dino, which can be added to later with the upgraded ps as can the gram amp2 SE IIRC

 

just to give an example of some chinese stuff, I have an icon, miexing, and the external build is fab, the internal wiring is the best I have every seen, and it looks like all ming da stuff is similar...this may be of interest...

http://www.audiocostruzioni.com/

check out the internals...

 

Cheers Paul, will look into it.

Any other suggestions for sub-200 quid phono amps I might consider?

Cheers,

Dunc

 

Dunc here is the gsp link http://www.gspaudio.co.uk/

I have the Era Gold V and it's stunning, better than the dino with my setup, but one caveat, they don't have a huge gain, only something like 41dB and are M/M only, my cart only puts out 3mV and needs the volume cranked a bit compare to my CDP but it wouldn't be a problem with higher output carts, the gram amp2 is very well recieved and the 2 SE is in a fancier box and some trick component changes, both can be upgrade with the PSU1 at another £150 gram amp 2 can be bought new from ebay seller for £125 and the SE is £199, a couple of guys on PFM are happily using the gram amp2, maybe a post on there to get some advice.

 

A S/H Michell Iso should be obtainable at around that price. I use one in my upstairs system, and it's currently doing sterling work in the main system whilst my Groove is away being adjusted. To my ears, the Iso is 'warm' and non-harsh without being soporific.

 

Is the iso not M/C only? I know they can be sent back to Michell and changed, but can they be changed to M/M

The Dino is great too (I just preffered the Era GOLD, and I tried the dino with upgraded PS) the dino is much more flexible, having adjustable loading, adjustable gain and can run M/M and M/C

 

Hi,

I don't know. I have seen internal pictures from stuff by Dared Tube and BEZ where the internals look noting like those commonly shown on the net.

Due to my involvement directly and indirectly with a number of chinese makers (current and newly starting up) I am aware of quite significant Quality Control issues. There is a tendency to "cherry pick" good batches for Export, the rest goes into the domestic chinese market at much lower prices.

Many of the grey imports on e-bay are actually domestic PRC units, which can be of poor quality, I am aware of a number of such cases.

Even with fairly reputable and ISO9001 certified companies like Shanling & Opera (I am quite familar with them for obvious reasons) there are often differences between domestic batches and export batches both in component quality and general care taken throughout assembly.

The upshot is, when buying direct from China/HK make sure you have backup or some form of recourse should things go wrong or be aware of the risk and mae sure you don't mind a loss. Otherwise you are left holding the bag and that can be a big and expensive bag.

Ciao T

 

Gram amp 2 is very good indeed. My next upgrade will be the power supply. I recommend it

 

<slaps forehead> You're right, the Iso is MC only, and fixed gain at that. But it sounds good if inflexibility isn't a problem!

 

Does the PS upgrade make a big difference? The Era comes with the PSU 1 and it's a naff plastic box, the same one as michell use for their basic TT ps and it also has a telfunken figure of 8 input, not saying it doesn't make an improvement just curious.

 

I would be a tad careful with the iso for mm, it uses an lt1028 as its front end, very low noise for moving coils, but with moving magnet it all goes pear shaped.
Probably best with an ad743 opamp, but I am not sure if Tom Evans changes that, I think he just does the loading, ad perhaps gain.

 

I used an ISO with a Goldring 1042 for ages, you have to change the loading and gain but its not hard, despite what Michel will tell you (and charge you). Wouldn't say it was pear shaped

 

Ive just sent a microgroove plus to Tom Evans for loading/gain adjustment, £50 including return carriage.

 

its only changing four resistors though (assuming ISO and microgroove are the same input, I'd assume they are). Iirc Michel charge about £100 for the same service with ISOs, what a rip!

 

without a circuit diagram i couldnt do it, being a multi layer pcb you cant just trace the tracks.

 

My iso is elsewhere atm, when I get it back I can let you know which resistors to change on that and why, you could maybe have a look at yours and see if the layout is the same, might be useful for future reference?

 

sounds like a plan
(not sure the iso is the same as the m-groove plus tho)

 

thought you had a 'cornet' or something mate?

 

Yeah I'd have thought they were different but I think it was someone on WAD mentioned that one of the new Groove things was basically the same as the ISO but with different OPamps or something. Does he still sand the numbers off? I reckon the ISO has quite a few compoenents that don't actually do anything, they're just there to throw you if you try to do anything to it, I was going to pull the PSU out but gave up after 2 or 3 days trying to figure the circuit out.

 

Still have, i went for SSB's microgroove fancying a change. Not heard it yet tho.