Andover Audio SpinStage review: Audiophile quality, great price | Tech Sy

have a look

Skilled score

benefits

• Works with MM and MC phono cartridges
• Superior optimization choices for MM cartridges
• Heat, detailed sound

Cons

• The included RCA cable is a bit brief

our verdict

The Andover SpinStage actually shines when used with greater priced cartridges, however this phono preamp can improve the sound of any turntable and may develop with upgrades to your private home audio system.

Value when reviewed

$249.00

Greatest Costs As we speak: Andover Audio SpinStage

$249.00

world stereo

$249.00

Andover Audio, a Massachusetts firm identified for manufacturing high-quality entry-level turntables and speaker methods, has added the SpinStage phono preamplifier to its lineup. The SpinStage is an distinctive audio part that provides a shocking variety of options and nice sound for the value.

This evaluate ties in with TechHive’s in-depth protection of the perfect turntables.

Many turntables function a built-in phono stage nowadays, however there are many causes to think about using a discrete unit as an alternative. The primary, and most evident, is that you’ve an outdated turntable and receiver and neither of them have phono phases. The second is that you simply upgraded the cartridge in your present turntable in an effort to squeeze somewhat extra out of it earlier than committing to an costly improve, however your onboard preamp is holding you again. The third is that you simply’re prepared for that costly improve and wish an incredible phono preamp at an inexpensive value.

The SpinStage sounds nice, and because it accepts transferring magnet (MM) and transferring coil (MC) cartridges, it is versatile sufficient to help years and even many years of turntable swapping and hi-fi experiments.

The aim of a phono preamplifier

James Barber/Foundry

The sign coming out of your turntable’s stylus and cartridge requires a lift to make it sturdy sufficient to work together with your audio system. It’s the most important stage within the vinyl audio chain and a step the place undesirable noise might be launched into the listening expertise.

If you wish to know why CDs have been so thrilling in 1982, it was as a result of digital was speculated to take away all of the rumble from unbalanced turntables and electrical noise from dodgy phono phases.

An efficient phono preamp will amplify the sign to match the trade commonplace RIAA curve with out introducing any undesirable noise into the listening expertise.

Transferring magnet and transferring coil cartridge holder

The SpinStage accepts transferring coil and transferring magnet phono cartridges. The cartridge is the digital unit discovered on the finish of the tonearm. The stylus plugs into the cartridge, which sends the unamplified sign to the phono preamplifier.

James Barber/Foundry

A transferring magnet cartridge is the most typical sort you may discover in an entry-level turntable. It makes use of a magnet on a coil of wire. Because the stylus follows the grooves of the file, the magnet strikes to generate {the electrical} sign that shall be boosted by the preamplifier. This kind of cartridge generates a better output than a transferring coil; nevertheless it’s additionally heavier, so it is much less able to monitoring subtleties in grooves. On the intense facet, it is simpler to exchange the stylus on a transferring magnet cartridge.

A transferring coil cartridge reverses the equation: the magnet is stationary and the wonderful coil strikes in response to the motion of the stylus within the grooves of the vinyl. This enables the cartridge to be lighter, however the sign it generates requires way more amplification in comparison with a transferring magnet cartridge.

It is a simplified rationalization of how the vinyl audio chain works. The vital factor to notice right here is that the SpinStage is flexible sufficient to work with a transferring magnet cartridge, and may nonetheless turn out to be useful in the event you ever change to a transferring coil.

Andover Audio SpinStage Design

James Barber/Foundry

The SpinStage is a sexy piece of kit with a sandblasted anodized aluminum housing. There’s an RCA aux enter, so you should use the field as a pass-through to an amp or preamp with a restricted variety of inputs.

There are additionally separate RCA inputs for turntables which have transferring magnet or transferring coil cartridges. A selector change on the again helps you to select between these two choices. With lengthy sufficient cables, you would join two turntables if one had a transferring coil and the opposite a transferring magnet cartridge, however the change placement would make it tough to commute between the 2.

There is a floor wire connection and a confusingly labeled RCA “aux out” connection to ship the sign to your amp, preamp, or receiver. A entrance panel energy change additionally toggles between the turntable and auxiliary inputs. A standing LED illuminates white for phono and inexperienced for aux.

James Barber/Foundry

The aux port acts as a through-through, so the interior electronics of the SpinStage do not contact the sign. Phono processing consists of twin mono remoted circuitry to reduce crosstalk and maximize stereo imaging.

There may be additionally a separate MC acquire stage with ultra-low noise discrete transistors. This kind of transconductance topology is usually discovered solely in dearer designs. There aren’t any capacitors within the direct sign path of the phono stage, which reduces distortion and qualifies as one other function not normally discovered at this value level.

Superior tweak choices

The SpinStage permits the listener to regulate the enter resistance and capacitance to match the values ​​advisable by the transferring magnet cartridge producer. A sequence of DIP switches on the underside of the unit might be flipped to regulate settings. It is a properly thought out function, even when it isn’t one thing the overwhelming majority of SpinStage customers ought to ever take into account. In the event you’re reaching transferring magnet cartridge heights that may require adjustment right here, you may understand it from all of the analysis you probably did earlier than spending cash on that new cartridge.

So why has Andover Audio included this function? As a result of the SpinStage is designed to be versatile sufficient to help all kinds of cartridges with options not in any other case out there on a phono stage at this value level.

Listening to the Andover Audio SpinStage

James Barber/Foundry

I examined the SpinStage 3 ways: first I linked my Technics SL-1200 direct-drive turntable with an Ortofon OM 10 MM cartridge and stylus to the Spinstage, which I then linked to a NAD S100 stereo preamp and a NAD 2400 Monitor Sequence amplifier linked to the B&W P5 floorstanding audio system.

Hearken to a 180-gram version of the 2016 remaster of David Bowie’s 1972 LP The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, there was a direct improve intimately in comparison with the NAD PP-1 phono preamp I had been utilizing earlier than. There was an extended decay on the guitar elements and higher separation of the person drums on the low finish.

I then switched to the Fluance RT81 belt-drive turntable, which comes with an Audio Technica AT95E cartridge and a built-in phono stage that may be turned off if desired. The AT95E is a good entry-level cartridge, nevertheless it’s nonetheless on the decrease finish of the audiophile curve.

The Fluance’s built-in phono stage is excellent, so I used to be significantly curious to see if the SpinStage might make a distinction to the AT95E. The distinction wasn’t dramatic, however the SpinStage provided a marked enchancment over the Fluance phono stage.

Is Andover Audio SpinStage value investing in?

What’s the conclusion of all this? The higher the cartridge in your turntable, the higher the SpinStage will sound. In different phrases, this preamp will sustain with the updates to the remainder of your private home audio system for a very long time to return, or no less than till you are able to make the leap to turntables and phono preamps that value hundreds of {dollars}. {Dollars}