Rarely Seen Nakamichi CA-5 Preamp with John Curl Designed Phono Stage Shares Heritage w/ Vendetta & JC-3

If ever the adage was true—they don't build them like they used to—this Nakamichi CA-5 is a case in point. If you are setting up a system that will include a turntable, well, this CA-5 has a phono stage that flat out outperforms much more expensive stand-alone phono stages. Most people look for this piece for the phono stage alone. Unit designed by John Curl and Nelson Pass. Insiders know this is a collector’s piece from the industry’s best circuit designers. This unit's phono stage remains one of the best around, bettering many more expensive stand-alone phono preamps. Made in Japan at the pinnacle of Nakamichi’s renown. The CA 5 offers separate moving magnet and moving coil amplification with the flip of a switch, with another switch to choose 3 different capacitative and inductive loads. This is serious phono pre, and if you're out searching for a stand-alone upwards of $1000, the CA 5 will likely have them all beat. I consider it a huge waste of technology, but many vinyl lovers use this preamp for the phono stage alone. Economically, it makes a lot of sense, but the line stages are of very high quality, too. In a retrospective review, The Inside Track said, "The CA5 pre-amplifier feels, even today, very solidly built. It even looks pretty smart as well...Looking back on my notes Nakamichi made a big play of the preamp’s power supply having multiple regulators feeding each stage of each channel independently... the internal build quality was always superb and I can see here from my notes that I felt that no cost had been spared to achieve the highest standard throughout...The pre-amplifier had a degree of sparkle and the bass had strength in terms of slam and power." The design is straight forward and ultra simple. This is an all discrete design, no op amps or I/C chips or electrolytic caps anywhere. This Nakamichi CA-5 preamplifier makes the list of all-time great values, with a super-smooth delivery and sonics which compare to Levinson, Meridian and other exceptional brands at a much more attainable price with this highly respectable piece of gear. • Minimalist design w/high quality parts • Short signal paths for better sonic performance • 1,800uF (x2) Filter Capacitors • 1% metal film resistors and 2% film dielectric capacitors used throughout • Input devices are FET w/Bi Polar transistors for the output • Gold plated inputs and outputs • Shielded power transformer far removed from the audio circuitry • Individual discrete audio blocks, for power supply, line amplifier, and phono section divided into Left and Right banks • Three heavy gauge solid copper power rails run through the middle (positive, ground, negative) (see photo) NOT a PCB trace to supply power to each audio block. • 31 step ALPS volume attenuator • ALPS selectors and balance control • 4 inputs and 2 tape loops and 2 sets of outputs (for biamping) • Selectable 50, 100, 200 ohm MC phono pickups • Selectable 47k ohms in parallel w/ 100, 200, 300pF of capacitance for MM cartridges This rare piece will go quickly. See my other rare piece for sale…a Sonic Frontiers Line 1 Tube Preamp… Buyer covers A’gon, PayPal and shipping. Good luck!