Wavestream Kinetics / Deluxe Phono Stage

The Deluxe Phono Stage is built with the same dedication to detail and build quality as all of the other Wavestream Kinetic products. The primary design goal is a flat RIAA EQ curve, within one tenth of a dB from 3 Hz to 40 Khz.  The unit features three phono inputs, with provisions for cartridge loading on the rear panel. There is one set of balanced input and output jacks, the rest being RCAs. In keeping with the philosophy of simple circuits, the unit uses three 6DJ8 tubes & two 12AX7 tubes. 

Input impedance: 47k ohms adjustable downward to any desired value by means of external loading jacks. This infinite flexibility is important for optimizing the damping of moving coil cartridges, for which the Phonostage is solely intended. Cartridges with outputs above 1.2mV should not be used, as these can cause phono overload (distortion on peaks).

Output impedance: 200 ohms (no buffer stage / cathode follower). 200 ohm output impedance allows the Phonostage to drive long runs of cable with negligible effect on frequency response.

Useful cartridge range is therefore 0.2mV to 1.2mV. Given this range of input voltage, the Phonostage gain has been optimized at 60dB. This is 1000 times the input voltage. For example, with a 0.25mV cartridge, the Phonostage output will be 250mV (1/4V); which is widely considered to be standard line level in recording studios.

In addition to high gain, the Phonostage is designed to be 2-3 times quieter than conventional tube phono stages.

There are four reasons for this extra quietness:

1. The parallel cascode input stage;

2. Power supply noise below 1uV (one-millionth of a volt);

3. Low noise resistors;

4. Decoupling of the audio board from the chassis.