Abbingdon Music Research PH-77 Phono Preamplifier

Marshall Nack has posted a review of the Abbingdon Music Research PH-77 Phono Preamplifier ($11,995) at Positive Feedback Online. His conclusions:

If music is your pleasure, you will find the new tube hybrid AMR PH-77 Reference Class Phono Equalizer an excellent communicator. Its strongest suit is clarity. Not the clarity of a component designed as a pass-through, with neutrality and resolution as the prime objectives. The PH-77 has exceeding clarity of musical content. It tips the ratio of music to artifacts and distractions towards the former. With the PH-77, you get more music.

Secondary strengths are its beautiful tone in the classic valve model, very satisfying weight and ability to scale. Crescendos are rendered with admirable heft and no change in quality. Symphonic fortes were outstanding.

The PH-77 is loaded with cutting edge features and functionality that are on everybody's wish list. How about remote controlled gain and cartridge loading? Best of all is a menu of 23 RIAA equalization filters that you can adjust on the fly from your listening seat while the record is playing.

The PH-77 was a joy to listen to. Indeed, it melted away my concerns as it brought my analog front-end up to speed with the rest of my system. I was strongly tempted to hang on to it.

You can read the full review here.