Just picked up a Quad Artera pre-amp, which by any measure / reviews has a pretty decent phono stage. I "upgraded" from a Quad Elite. FYI I have a crappy head cold atm (but on the decline) For the Elite, I used an Arkless GTI "Turbo" phono stage direct in at line level.
My thinking was to eliminate another potential source of noise / distortion and go direct into the Artera so that's the set up I have now.
I still have the Arkless, so can drop back in at any time, but more connections...less elegant etc..
I know this is a virtually impossible Q to answer, but generally would an external phono stage be "better" than built in ? the Arkless was optimised for the cartridge AT33-PTG/II and is MC only (a lot of components were removed) and I'm not able to measure actual performance.
By the way, I'm only too aware of the "marmite" opinions regarding the aforementioned phono stage... [some say good / some say bad etc]. I'm 3hrs into listening so willing to take on board ideas and even better, direct experience.
Thanks
My thinking was to eliminate another potential source of noise / distortion and go direct into the Artera so that's the set up I have now.
I still have the Arkless, so can drop back in at any time, but more connections...less elegant etc..
I know this is a virtually impossible Q to answer, but generally would an external phono stage be "better" than built in ? the Arkless was optimised for the cartridge AT33-PTG/II and is MC only (a lot of components were removed) and I'm not able to measure actual performance.
By the way, I'm only too aware of the "marmite" opinions regarding the aforementioned phono stage... [some say good / some say bad etc]. I'm 3hrs into listening so willing to take on board ideas and even better, direct experience.
Thanks