# Using Sprout as Phono Stage

**URL:** <https://forum.psaudio.com/t/using-sprout-as-phono-stage/3825>\
**Category:** Integrateds\
**Created:** [March 23, 2017, 8:27am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/using-sprout-as-phono-stage/3825 "2017-03-23T08:27:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mdbush](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3e96dc/32.png) [@mdbush](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/mdbush)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 8:27am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/using-sprout-as-phono-stage/3825/1 "2017-03-23T08:27:29Z")

</div>

Long story short, but I actually have an “extra” Sprout at the moment, and I’m planning to try it out in auxiliary system as a phono stage (turntable to vinyl input; analog output to my Hegel integrated). I’ll report back with results, but anyone else have experience with using Sprout as a phono stage? (I’m intrigued by what will become the “adjustable gain:” The volume knob).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mdbush](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3e96dc/32.png) [@mdbush](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/mdbush)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 3:44pm UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/using-sprout-as-phono-stage/3825/2 "2017-03-27T15:44:31Z")

</div>

Results: The sound was comparable with MM phono stages in the $200-300 range, which is really impressive since the entire Sprout only cost $500! In my particular situation the gain wasn’t enough (I had the Sprout volume all the way up and didn’t get enough volume to remotely match the rest of the system I was using), but I could see the Sprout being used successfully for this in a lot of situations.

Interestingly, the phono stage was quite quiet.

Obviously this isn’t standard use case but it was fun to try out.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![julio-souza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58956e/32.png) [@julio-souza](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/julio-souza)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 5:17am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/using-sprout-as-phono-stage/3825/3 "2017-03-28T05:17:26Z")

</div>

Hi Michael,

Have you compared directly to another phono preamp? Which model (s) ?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mdbush](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3e96dc/32.png) [@mdbush](https://forum.psaudio.com/u/mdbush)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 7:42am UTC](https://forum.psaudio.com/t/using-sprout-as-phono-stage/3825/4 "2017-03-31T07:42:56Z")

</div>

I compared it to a Musical Surroundings Phenomona 1, and a Schitt Mani phono stage - both using MM settings.