American high-end audio electronics stalwart PS Audio expands its ‘Stellar’ range of products with a new high-feature phono stage the company claims is the best it has ever produced.
Bearing the trademark high levels of engineering, the new Darren Myers-designed Stellar Phono Preamplifier is PS Audio’s latest entry into the analogue domain. The Stellar phono stage is based around a bespoke discrete FET Class-A, DC-coupled circuit eschewing the commonly used and easier-to-engineer IC designs which often present inferior performance. The unit has been refined with high quality ‘premium’ components and an ‘oversized’ high current power transformer.
“The Stellar Phono Preamp is a classic example of the PS Audio ethos: superb musical performance at a price far less than your ears would indicate” Mike Kirkham from Australian distributor Magenta Audio told SoundStage! Australia.
The Stellar Phono Preamplifier caters to both Moving Magnet (MM) and Moving Coil (MC) cartridges and features two inputs allowing the use of two tonearms with a mix of cartridge types. The Moving Coil input features individual ‘Custom’ impedance load settings from 1 ohm to 1 kohm while the standard factory-set values are 60, 100, 200 ohms and 47 kohms. The Moving Magnet input sports a standard 47 kohm. The loadings can be adjusted via the supplied remote control with the Custom adjustments being also available via the unit’s rear panel. The Stellar Phono stage offers both balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA outputs.
Comprehensive gain levels are also provided and are 44dB, 50dB and 56dB for the MM input while the MC input sees 60dB, 66dB and 72dB values. The Stellar phono’s output impedance of 200 ohms unbalanced and 200 ohms (per leg) balanced present an easy load for any upstream preamplifier. Frequency response has been specified as spanning from 20Hz to 20kHz +/- 0.25dB. Inter-channel crosstalk is given as 74dB while the Signal-to-Noise Ratio is less than 82dB A-Weighted for MM and less than 74dB A-Weighted for the MC stage.
The PS Audio Stellar Phono Preamplifier is available around Australia via distributor Magenta Audio’s established audio specialists.
PS Audio Stellar Phono Preamplifier
Price: AU$4295
Australian Distributor: Magenta Audio
+61 8 8390 1673
www.magentaaudio.com.au
