AQVOX phono2ci mk2

[khfm865]

Hi All,

Has anyone heard this phonostage or better still own one? Seems like a very interesting product being fully balanced with xlr in and out for under £800.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Cheers

[Tel]

Ian Sampson owns one and it is an interesting piece of kit.
One of the few fully balanced phono stages around.

[cjr]

Was seriously tempted with one of these when I had my Primare but ended up with the Naim Stageline, the other XLr stage that was of interest was this £899 beast:

http://www.psaudio.com/ps/products/d...fier?cat=audio

[khfm865]

Nice!

There is something alluring about well-engineered rears!

[Ian Sampson]

Hi khfm865

Yes, I own one and love it. It's very versatile with regards to cartridges and produces much more detail than my previous phono, the EAR834P.

Just had a quick look at the GCPH and it doesn't have balanced XLR's at the input. I think that was one of the reasons I decided against it.

As a matter of on iterest,where have you seen one for under £800.00? There're £898.00 plus postage-mind you, I asked how much for cash and then received a discount.

Best wishes

Ian

[khfm865]

Hi Ian,

Thanks for the reply - sorry about that - my fault. They are £898.

I imagine this phono goes really well with the Arezzo. Plenty of detail from your tt too.

I have a vpi classic on its way to me. I can get the junction box for my table to take the balanced signal straight to the AQVOX - reckon it should sound damn nice. I have a Bryston 4Bsst2 amp, which is really detailed also - hoping I will have a real hi res system.

Cheers

[Ian Sampson]

What arm and cartridge will you have on the VPI classic?

[khfm865]

I will have the Vpi 10.5SE - I have ordered this slightly upgraded version with the VTA tower. I am going to use a Dynavector 20X to start me off.

Cheers

[egodissolve]

I did own a mark 1 version but it was replaced by a Anatek MC1, a better phonostage all-round for around the same cost.
Unfortunately, I can't comment on the mark 2 but hope this helps!

[Alex A]

It's a brilliant stage, with auto biasing on MC carts it really takes the hassle of guesswork and experimentation out of getting an MC cart (high or low output) to sound good. I got better - and more consistently good - results than I did with step-ups and valve stages. Sound wise, it's very dynamic, detailed and 'PRaTty' with a pretty flat and broad freq. response. Especially good for more contemporary, dynamic music.

I sold my MkII (which I believe was very different to the MkI) early last year to raise some funds, and I'd have another in a heartbeat if one came up SH at a decent price.

[khfm865]

Hi Alex A - thanks very much for your feedback. Really sounds like you rate this stage highly. Interestingly some of the words you have chosen to describe this phonostage are spot on with what I am after in my system. Very dynamic, detailed, and PRaTty are all things that I would look for - the VPI is really PRaTty itself. My Bryston is dynamic and very detailed. Think I might have stumbled on a good solution here.

I can get a Balanced junction box for my VPI classic too, which would allow me to use balanced cabling without adaptors etc. I was not previously aware until recently that the MC cartridge is fully balanced.

Egodissolve - thanks for the comments - I will look at the Anatek too.

Cheers