![]() The settings are printed on a label affixed to the underside, so you don't have to go looking for an owner's manual – a thoughtful touch and a way to avoid gnashing teeth. A 5x30mm recess holds a dozen tiny DIP switches to allow you to match it to MM or MC cartridges, with nine impedance and four gain settings. ![]() The front has a ¼in socket to access its headphone amp, while the rear contains RCA phonos for in-and-out signals, an earthing post and a multi-pin socket for power from the AC adapter.įlip it over, and here's where the seriousness becomes evident. ![]() On the top of the nicely-made, 100x30x170mm (whd), all-metal box are a volume control, a power-on LED and buttons for mono and subsonic filter. What you get with the UltraPhono is all you could want for adding phono to a system lacking it. I've played with a number of these, and while all offer the novice an RIAA stage at little cost, none has delivered what you or I would expect from companies including Pro-Ject, NAD, Rega, Cambridge and now, MoFi. But it has to be: a search of .uk revealed phono amps for as little as £15. It is more than just a quick-fix, down 'n' dirty phono stage for dealing with line-level-only systems. At £499, it's not for the impoverished analogue neophyte, but neither is it horrendously expensive by any measure. Mobile Fidelity's UltraPhono is an example of what the industry can deliver when inspired, and clearly this is a response to the need for affordable phono stages to render suitable 30 years' worth of post-CD integrated amplifiers without phono stages. With input from the designer behind MoFi's cutting lathes, the UltraPhono (and StudioPhono) were conceived as high value partners for its affordable turntablesĪre we in the midst of a Golden Age of Analogue? If you're returning to, or just discovering the vinyl LP, then yes, we are.
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