Darren Myers and the PS Audio team are very excited to launch the new Stellar Phono Preamp! We are starting the beta test August and will be officially launching the product in September for shipment. Darren’s new preamp is a completely discrete design and completely analog all of the way through. He and Paul spent many months voicing it in our reference rooms along with some amazing analog systems here in the Boulder area. I got the pleasure to hear some of the earliest prototypes in our Music Room 2 and it is simply stunning!
This thread is where you will see first impressions from our beta participants, and other discussions about the phono pre.
I am definitely signed up. Being in Boulder, Badbeef and I were lucky enough to help Darren voice the prototype of the new phono pre in our systems and…let me just say, I can’t wait!!
Seems a very short beta period, with production unit shipments going out only a month later. How can you collate beta impressions and incorporate any design or product changes resulting from beta user feedback in such a short time?
Depends on what those suggestions and changes might be. Collating the data is easy and we generally let our beta testers post online, which they do rather quickly. If they suggest feature changes they are saved for perhaps a version two of the product. No,
for us, beta testing generally allows a broader audience to catch anything we might have missed that can be fixed in programming (perhaps a remote button push combination we never tried) or even as much as a value change in a component to adjust gain or something
else. The expectation is they won’t find anything.
Remember too, this is a public beta which means it’s already gone through an extensive internal alpha test phase (where we can/and do make circuit board changes if needed) followed by an extensive internal beta test of the finished unit. This
internal beta test is usually with around 10 trusted people who are pretty brutal with their opinions.
I’m very tempted by this. I did the SGCD beta and it was fun to get in on it early. I don’t think that beta was particularly long either. I was one of the folks that experienced the bug where it went full volume unexpectedly😳 I got it fixed and opted for the revised finish in short order from the factory (advantage of living in Boulder). Been perfect since then and no regrets.
I guess while we wait for our Stellar Phono to arrive, we share our setup?
My analog setup consists of:
Klipsch Cornwall III
First watt SIT-3
PS Audio BHK Pre
Rega Fono MC
Rega P6 with Ania cartridge
PS Audio P15 powering everything
I have NPC acting as ADC to record my needle drops
I just dropped by PSA at James invitation to pick up my new Stellar Phono Preamp beta unit!! Mine was one of nice big stack of phono pres ready to ship. So, if you are signed up for the beta…it won’t be long now! Now to open the box.
I think you passed me as I arrived to pick up mine!
Unfortunately I won’t have time to open the box until tomorrow afternoon (dinner plans). The unit weighs a ton compared to the my SGCD. Must be down to the beefy internal PSU. Mine will be going into the following system:
Turntable:
Linn LP12, Cirkus bearing, with Hercules/MOSE PSU, Tiger Paw Tranquility bearing support, Black Ittok LVII arm with Audio Origami tonearm cable
