I’ve owned the Stellar Phono Preamp for about four months and noticed it is very noisy compared to other phono preamps I’ve owned, including the PS Audio GCPH. When on mid-level gain, with the volume turned up to around 11:00 it sounds almost like it’s a tube preamp with that audible “rush” sound, and even a faint bit of hum. This is with nothing connected to it. I was also alarmed when I put an EMF meter to it and noticed it is emitting a significant amount of EMF, much, much more than any other component in my system. The Stellar Phono is connected to an Audioquest Niagara 1200 PC, as are all my system’s components. Swapping power cords and interconnects makes no difference in the noise level.
So, my question to other SPP owners is: Is yours noisy, too or dead silent?
I am a former owner of the Stellar phono preamp. It was a great phono pre and not noisy at all. The only reason I sold it was to acquire the Rega Aura MC only preamp to match the rest of my analogue setup.
I agree with Serhan, it shouldn’t be that noisy. It can be fairly sensitive to the cables feeding it from the TT. Might be worth trying some different ones if the TT allows different cables.
Just had during last weeks a similar issue with my SPP reported on another thread. I had a different noise from right vs left speaker, after sending back for repair to my dealer now it has been fixed. Is it dead silent? Not at all still now.
If you switch the Preamp from a different input (say DAC for instance) to the SPP input I suppose you hear more noise.
I’m not hearing hum now, just white noise. It increases with volume and with mid-gain or high-gain.
I cannot hear it from my listening spot, so I don’t care about. It means that I appreciate, no I love so much the sound signature and soundstage reality of the SPP that I consider the noise almost tolerable. I compared it with the Gold Note PH-10 phono preamp, due to the fact that my analog rig is full GN (Mediterraneo TT - PST-10 power supplier - Donatello Gold cartridge) and I prefer the SPP.
So I abandoned any investigation on possible solutions for white noise and I happily started enjoying vinyls vinyls and vinyls day after day.
Conclusion for my experience and my system and my home is… yes SPP and BHK Preamp are a little noisy, so what? (as always says @Paul himself!). If you cannot hear noise from your sweet spot don’t waste your time… if otherwise this is a noise that distracts you from the pleasure of music then go deep to better understand how to reduce it. PS Audio team and @jamesh are very kind and speed giving help in these cases.
Good luck!
It is definitely a front row phono preamp. In my lifetime, I have owned three Musical Fidelity phono preamps (two of which were full size), one Naim phono stage, PSA SPP, and finally Rega Aura. It suits my system and is the last phono pre for me.
Thanks for the thorough reply. I can tolerate a bit of noise, but for a $2400 phono preamp, mine exceeds what’s acceptable. As I said previously, I’ve owned other phono preamps, but none was as noisy as this one. I will be calling their tech department today.
