Vincent PHO-700 Phono Preamplifier

For more than a decade, Vincent Audio has been designing and manufacturing interesting phono stages. The PHO-700 may be one of Vincent’s best designs tovincent-pho-700 to date, meeting the challenge of building a phono stage with low-noise and as much loss-free transmission as possible. the PHO-700 does just that. It also looks the business with a nice valve glow through the window on the front).

This is a two piece affair with power supply and phono stage kept apart. Excellent! The looks are good – fairly retro but well engineered and solid with a front panel ‘window’ on the PHO-700 through which you can see a 12AU7 valve which is used here in dual triode mode.

Lifting the lid shows quality components from Nichicon, Wima, and their ilk. There is a four position switch which varies the intensity of the six orange-red LED backlights to the valve. If you get bored with the light show, they can be completely switched off as well.
One of the most interesting aspects of this unit is the specially designed and highly developed outboard power supply. It weighs a ton and speaks to the quality of the transformer, metal chassis, shielding, and other components. At this price point, most manufacturers (Dynavector and Electrocompaniet included) simply provide a noisy OEM wall wart. 

The PHO-700 can cater for both MM and MC cartridges with a selector switch on the back of the phono stage. The input impedance are fixed value with MM the standard 47 kilohms and the MC cartridge 100 ohms. That should match a wide range of cartridges and at this price point it would be a bit churlish to want or expect anything else.

Build quality: 9/10 
Sound Quality: 9/10
Value For Money: 9.5/10
Overall – 9.17
This is a bargain. Recommended for people who want a simple phono stage for a decent turntable and good MM cartridge that performs with exceptional musicality and at a price that makes it something of a bargain. The valve goodness is a bonus!

With both cables, box and packing.

Thank you