Is it worth adding a stand alone Phono Stage ?

[zoidburg]

I have a Roksan Kandy LIII amp that im generally very happy with. I was wondering how good the phonno stage on it actually was ? Would it be worth adding a stand alone phono amp up to a max value of £250 - £300 (new or 2nd hand) and would it provide a significant boost in performance when listening to vinyl?

If so what contenters in this price bracket should i be thinking about ?

[voiceofthemysterons]

Ben, you could try a Puresound P10, but then I would say that as I have one for sale within your budget range in the classifieds!
If you'd like to demo it to see if it is an improvement, get in touch-I'm in East london.
Seriously, it's a very competent phonostage for mms at that price and I should Samantha has a matching T10 transformer there too if you plan using mc carts.

[Pac67]

At your budget, there aren't too many stand alone stages that would significantly better your in built phonostage, as its meant to be a half decent one on the Roksan. There are other benefits though such as isolating the unamplified phono signals more effectively from the main amp's power supply to reduce unwanted EMF interference and give you a cleaner signal. If you are prepared to up your budget to £500, then that's probably a different matter. There's a wealth of great stages available 2nd hand at this price that should comprehensively wipe the floor with the Roksan's bundled stage. Project's special edition tubebox is great, or if sticking with the lovely sound of a tube preamp, the EAR 834 can be had secondhand for that money. Alternatively, the Trichord Dino or one of the Graham Slee stages would be a good bet.

[zoidburg]

Maybe id be best doing a little bit more saving then.....Id rather not do a "sideways" move, id much prefer to spend a bit more when funds allow knowing that il get a much more impressive jump hopefully.

@Voiceofthemysterons, thanks for your offer mate your very kind dude.

[Cable Monkey]

Ben,
sometimes it is useful to look at what someone says in the context of the kit they run. In the case of Pac67 his comments are made in the context of a Gyrodek/SME, 2 grands (plus?) worth of amplification and speakers that sold for 15000 dollars in the States. Spending more is no guarantee of anything short of being poorer, and while I am unfamiliar with the stage in your amp, I would try to get to listen to other stages and amps to gain your own idea of where you sit in the scheme of things. It may well be that you have to spend 500 plus, but I managed a significant upgrade for £300 and another wammer got the same stage for less in a later auc..... You know what I mean. With the wealth of really high quality stuff from the 90's on, there are bargains to be had and logic doesn't dictate that spending more gets you more in many cases.

[Pac67]

Thats a very fair comment Cable Monkey. Mind you I was responding with the benefit of having auditioned budget stages when I was a good deal poorer and had an all budget system. I ran an Audiolab amp at that time, and auditioned the project phonostages (budget ones), tube box and a few others and decided that they were really a sideways move so I stuck with my trusty Audiolab for some years before shelling out on upgrades. Of course, the sensible suggestion is to try and get a few on home audtion and then to make your mind up.

[flapland]

If you decide to give a phono stage a try. I have a quality one in the Classifieds which would be a cheap experiment.

I accept this is a shameless plug but a man has to try.