Phono Stage Advice

Posted by: Harris V on 14 March 2001

I have a very limited (30) collection of LPs but would love to be able to play them again via my Nait3. I do not wish to spend too much money but as far as i can tell i have 3 options:

1. Internal board for Nait (about £90)
2. Stageline + PSU (Over £200)
3. Other external box (From £40)

Does anyone have any opinions on the relative merits of the above? I will be using it with a very modest deck (Will probably be 2nd hand Rega or Project for under £200).

All i want is a good match whilst keeping the cost low.

Posted on: 14 March 2001 by John C

Harry, I assume by other you mean Project phono. I had an old one and tried this on nait 5 and it sounded very poor. The Stageline (in my case powered off the Nait 5) is rather marvellous and in a different stratosphere. The phono boards on the Nait 3 are excellent and if I were you I would go that route. The lower end Projects arent really up to the standard of the the Nait IMO and I suggest going for a Rega.

Johnn

Posted on: 14 March 2001 by woodface

I would go for the internal phono board option on the nait. It is the most cost effective option and lets not forget that naim build great phono stages. I run my LP12 through the internal MC stage on my 82 and prior to that through a MM on a 92.

Posted on: 15 March 2001 by Martin Payne

Harris,

which version of the NAIT do you have?

I'm not sure that all of them will take add-in boards.

However, you might find that you can get some s/h ones if you're trying to keep the cost down. Try a wanted ad on NaimMarket or Loot, once you know what cartridge you'll be matching them with.

BTW for the £250+ cost of the deck you might be able to replace all your vinyl with CDs (if they're available).

It's not that I'm against vinyl - I'm a big fan, with a loaded LP12. I'm even in the middle of a big vinyl session at the moment - the girlfriend is even joining in, which is an almost unique event!

cheers, Martin

Posted on: 16 March 2001 by Harris V

OK, now i'm starting to have doubts. I have always liked the sound of vinyl even on cheap equipment, however i do not want the sound of my CDs to suffer.

Has anyone had experience of how much adding the mm board to a Nait 3 changes the sound (I assume due to extra current for the board?)

Posted on: 16 March 2001 by Martin Payne

quote:
I assume due to extra current for the board?

Harris,

apparently, this is not the main reason.

The cartridge boards contain a diode which injects noise into the power supply. Lower noise is one of the strengths of the better supplies, so is obviously important for good performance.

cheers, Martin