Aural Thrills Audio Tube MM/MC Phono Amplifier Audiophile Model

All Tube Stand Alone Phono Stage MM

 

All Tube Stand Alone Phono Stage MM/MC

Audiophile model

Free Trial Period

Phono stages are very special to me. I have a large
record collection and never made the switch to digital. I had a field day when
everyone was selling their record to Goodwill. $1 each. I fear these good old
days are over as others are discovering the magic of vinyl. I have been building
phono amps for many years and have tried many and built many others. I like the
low output moving coil cartridges best, as do most people. It has the most
detail and you are there feeling for my ears. Unfortunately low output
cartridges need extra gain over Moving Magnet cartridges. Many people use a step
up transformer. It steps up the voltage at the expense of losing current. It is
known to be very quiet but in my opinion sounds flat and loses much of the
beauty. Other designs use a small solid state amplifier chip for the extra gain
that a moving coil needs. These usually sound worse than the transformer. My
favorite is to use tubes for all of the amplification. The main downfall of this
approach is that tubes can be noisy. Phono amps multiply the signal many times
over. Much more than other types of amps. Noise is multiplied as well. So what
is the solution? I have found that there are a few ways of making an all tube
phono stage quiet.

 

Here are the latest customer reviews:

06/17/2015

Just wanted to let you know I received the unit

in great shape. I am leaving in the morning on vacation and won/t get to

listen much until I get back. From what I have listened so far, all I can

say is awesome, awesome, awesome. I will just rotate my Moving coil

cartridges. I have some older preamps for MM. Other cartridge I have is Low


output moving coil Grado Sonata. Haven/t tried it yet. Thanks for

everything. Don/t know what brand of tubes are in it, but they sound

excellent to me. David.

Here is another one.

Hi Tom

I changed the setting back to M C @ 100 ohms after trying a higher setting,I
took the sot out of the configuration, I warmed the amp up with one side of Bach
and then I played my reference album, Dark side of the moon.

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD this would equal  the most discerning systems at any cost,
the separation and darkness of the sound stage just blew my mind I am not
changing the cartridge, it could use a little more mv output to be perfect but
it is not worth the effort as this turntable is a bear to change. Thank you for
leading me away from the H O M C, I did buy the denon 103 r and I am going to
install that on a Thorens 160 that is being refurbished and up graded with
todays technology or possibly a VPI classic if I can get the right price on that
and sneak it into the house so my wife doesn't see it.

At any rate I could not be happier with this very fine pre amp you would be hard
pressed to find one that functions as flawless at any price. It is a great
product and you are a absolute pleasure to deal with.

I will send you the tracking # when I go to the post office, but now It is
Beatles time

Thanks

 

Here is another review just received:

Douglas Robert Hounsell

Fri, Oct 17, 2014 at 2:25 PM





To: Tom Kenny











Good afternoon Tom,
The preamp is here and I must say I am quite impressed with the
build quality and construction of piece. First rate and it looks
great in the rack. However looks aside after plumbing it up into
system the real proof of your Phono pre with the balanced outs is
what really matters to me!  After listening to a MFSL Rolling
Stones “Let it Bleed” I was quite pleased, then on to Stealy Dans
“Aja” I  was rapidly becoming an Aural Thrills Audio fan big time.
The punch combined with a subtle smoothness is magnificent. Lower
register notes on piano are outrageous clean, tight and dominate.
I am fully aware how difficult it can be to accomplish this as I
worked my tail off with Leon Russell’s engineer one evening
getting this very thing “right” at a show I produced and
engineered some years ago. Thank you for your devotion to what
matters in your craft. Perfection takes its toil on the less
passionate but their always will be folks like me that understand
and appreciate folks like you. Now on to the Beach Boys “Pet
Sounds”

Thanks Again

Doug Hounsell
[Quoted text hidden]

 

Hi Tom,

Yes I received the pre amp in good condition and I sent you a response on Ebay
for your product.



I set it up and it sounds great! I've invested in an affordable LP vinyl washing
system, and with a modified vac system, my record collection has been given new
life!



The Marantz SR8001 amp and Technics SP15 turntable/Grado cartridge are sounding
really clean with your phono stage.



Thank you for your excellent workmanship.



Best,



Phil

 

Tom,



Received the amp and plugged it in to the CD input of my Yamaha A-S700 amp. I
have a Yaquin MC-100B that’s been modified by a tech in Australia and a pair of
Sonus Faber Concertinos, but all unfortunately still in storage.

I am listening to some Australian country music, the hairs on the back of my
neck are standing up - I’ve honestly never heard it sound so clear, present and
detailed.

Can’t wait to spend some quality time with your preamp. Maybe I’ll just plug the
headphones in and kick back for a couple hours….

Thanking you, sir.



Shawn.

 

Picked it up this afternoon. I've attached a picture of the phono
section opened that Tom sent me while it was still on his bench.
I'll do more pics and the power section later. I have to say, even
not being broken in at all, the sound is really impressive and a
perfect match for the rest of my set up. Running analog direct, the
level of detail, the air around each instrument, the extension, the
tightness of the bass, the depth of the sound stage, all are
incredible. It was a real bargain at the price I paid, too. All I
need now is an Emission Labs 274B and time to break it in.

• 
  
  
  
  
  Now that I'm getting a few hundred hours on the caps and other
  components, it's time for a bit more of a review and a few more
  pics.
  
  
  
  First, Tom at ATA was great to work with. He answered all my
  questions and helped me make decisions on a completely custom,
  hand-built, phono stage. As you can see in the first pic, the
  signal path consists of Mundorf S/O as the output coupling, along
  with Sonicaps and silver mica caps in the passive RIAA section,
  with Mills resistors. Electrolytics are used only for the radio
  frequency filtering, which is outside the signal path. Everything
  except the Mundorfs are part of the standard 100 dollar upgrade
  (normal price for the stage is 899, 999 for the upgraded version).
  Those ran an extra 200 on top of the upgrade. I also decided to go
  with a choke input on the 274B rectified power supply, and a
  linear power supply instead of a switching after talking to Tom
  about the pros and cons of each. I'm also now running his
  recommended Amperex 12AX7s, which I really like. Into this, I'm
  running an Empire 2x8 fitted with a Rega arm that's been heavily
  upgraded and a Shelter 501 Mk II cart using a Baerwald (sp?)
  alignment for Rega arms. The phono IC comes from the Cardas DIN to
  custom solid silver cables w/ WBTs, and out from the pre via a
  custom cable that's a single silver and a single copper 28 ga. OCC
  strand twisted together w/ DH Labs RCAs and cotton insulators.
  That feeds out into my Pio SC-05 and out via analog direct into my
  Mackie's then to my RTi12s @ 850 wpc. So that's the setup.
  
  
  
  The sound is very balanced, with many good qualities, and no bad
  ones that I can hear. The sound stage is quite wide and deep, and
  instruments have a very nice space, but they sound neither big nor
  pinpoint. Instead, instruments sound life-sized. Vocals have a
  good weight to them, and it's very easy to count the number of
  singers when multiple vocalists come in. A good example of this is
  the 2nd track on Jackson Brown's Running On Empty, where there's a
  close harmony between 3 male vocalists. On my old Parasound, I
  thought it was a weird mix where Jackson's voice was spread all
  the way across the sound stage. After hooking up the Aural Thrills
  Audio stage, I was able to discern that it was actually 3
  different vocalists in close harmony, with Jackson mixed center,
  and one voice mixed into the left channel, and one into the right.
  Female vocals also receive very good treatment. Ella and Aretha
  are even more engaging than ever. It's especially fun picking out
  which vocalists have good mic technique, and which one's tend to
  lean into and away from the mic while singing. Cymbals ring for a
  ridiculously long time through even the densest tracks, and have
  plenty of that brassy shine to them that you hear if you strike a
  cymbal yourself. It's even easy to discern where on the cymbal
  it's being played, down to how far from the bell the drummer is
  striking it, and exactly which type it is (ride, china, etc.).
  Drums have amazing slam, with a deep, tight bass. I find myself
  listening to Rolling Stone Under Cover just to listen to the
  drums. Also easy to hear is the ring of the drum head after being
  hit, as well as the transient from the strike. Bass guitars and
  bass violas, whether plucked or bowed, sound fantastic. Deep, lots
  of overtones, just like they're in the room. Acoustic guitars (and
  all wood-bodied instruments) again sound very realistic. Picking
  out a small bodied acoustic, or a dreadnought, etc., all are quite
  readily distinguishable. Violins and other stringed classical
  instruments have a very slight sweetness to them, but again, the
  wood of the body is clearly distinguishable especially during solo
  passages, but also during denser passages. Horns all have their
  own proper sound, and the breath of the player can easily be heard
  when wind or reed instruments are present. It's especially fun to
  listen to pieces with both flutes and piccolos present, since the
  tonal differences are so readily apparent. Finally, piano pieces
  sound excellent, right down to the hammer striking the strings. So
  in short, this pre wasn't cheap, but it's an excellent value. I
  can't wait to see how it sound after another 200 hours.
  
  
  
  

 

I have designed this unit for optimum sound and ease of
use. It is capable of delivering stunning performance in both MM and MC mode.
The reason, it is an all tube unit. No step up transformer needed. I have tried
all types of MC step up transformers and solid state amplifier devices for the
critical first gain for a MC cartridge. I have tried a high output MC cartridges
so I did not have to have the extra gain. Nothing sounded as good as a low
output moving coil amplified by tubes.

A phono stage amplifies such a small starting signal
that any outside interference becomes a hum or other distortion. RFI/EMI becomes
real problems at these signal levels. Tube rush can also be a problem. I have
worked years to overcome these obstacles. The result is an amplifier that is
dead quiet, has great detail, and can play just about any type of cartridge
made. Choose between 50 or 60 db of gain. Cartridge loading is 47K MM and 100,
510, 1.3k, and2.7k for MC.

I started with a commercially available board. I used a
combination of  and Wima capacitors and 1% film resistors. Included electrolytic
capacitors are the new Nichicon MUSE high end Audio grade. These provide a real
high end sound.

KG Series

 

Nichicon KG Series, designed for high-grade
audio equipment,

offers three sound quality variations.

Features

 

• Capacitance range 680 to 33,000µF


• Voltage range 16V to 100V (Type I, Type II, and Type III)


• Temperature range -40ºC to +85ºC

These are awesome and make electrolytic capacitors sound
deep and rich. Four supplied NOS Brimar 12ax7 tubes provide plenty of quiet
gain. Take the cover off and you can adjust gain and cartridge loading with with
built in switches.

All traces on the board are made of Silver for detail
and power. All tube sockets are Gold plated for trouble free service. All parts
are hand selected to insure a large soundstage. Transformer is a shielded,
custom made which can run on 120/230/240 volts.  Unit is completely regulated
for quiet operation. It has that you are there quality.

 

HOW CAN THIS AMP BE ANY GOOD AT THIS LOW
PRICE?

I have used commercially available boards
of a proven design to keep cost down. I have used a standard chassis instead of
paying hundreds for a custom job with printing. This allows me to buy superior
parts and still keep cost down. You will not find this unit anywhere else. It
may be the best deal in the audio business.

 

 

• Completely regulated current and voltage supplies


• Custom Shileded transformer for quiet operation


• 120/230/240 Volt


• RIAA circuit built in (radio industry association of America


• MC/MM


• Adjustable loading


• 4 X 12AX7 JJ


• Wima/Sonicap film capacitors.


• 1% resistors


• Best sounding unit around


• Muse Audio Grade electrolytic caps


• Gold tube sockets

Only $999.99

MC
MM




 



Vacuum Tube Complement
4 x 12Ax7
3 x 12AX7


Inputs
1 pair single-ended RCA
1 pair single-ended RCA


Outputs
1 pair single-ended RCA


Gain (Total 62dB)
60 dB
50dB


Output Impedance
425Ω


Frequency Response +0 -1 dB
10Hz – 50kHz


Maximum Output Voltage <1% THD
20V


Cartridge load impedance
Variable: 100Ω, 500Ω, 470Ω, 1.2k 1.8k
47kΩ,


Minimum Recommended Cartridge Output
0.2 mV
1.5 mV


Signal to Noise Ratio
50 dB
56 dB


Channel Separation
> 50dB (20 Hz – 20 kHz)


Power Consumption
20W


Dimensions W x D x H
21x 12x 3.5″


Weight
16 lbs  packed