After roughly 40 years of mixing and not matching, I have power amp, line stage and phono stage from one mfr. And cables in this system are also a “full loom”. I’m now a fan of synergy…for now.
The dealer who called me today is the UK distributor of Ypsilon, but we were only talking about RCM, a phono amp brand apparently almost unknown in the USA. I have their smallest model and it’s utterly brilliant. The RCM Big Phono might suit you, it’s about $50k, although Alan Sircom (heard of him?) has been using their TheRIAA as his reference phono for a decade, and they just upgraded it. That comes in at about $20k.
As for the Big Phono, this is just the power supply, and it only comes in black.
Many thanks. Yes, I’m looking at the larger Ypsilon. It’s an excellent phono Pre. It’s Fremer’s personal choice in his system. But I’m unsure what it will sound like in ours. I have a friend who’s bringing over his in a few weeks. So we shall find out soon.
Silver transformer windings and signal wiring? Just curious
Exactly! Silver is the key.
Gonna need the silver step-up then👍
I take one for each channel, L and R.
Well, findings?
Reading how you described the sound makes clear, you experience the magic it’s all about. Very nice setup! I owned a Vitus amp after Threshold, Pass, Gryphon and before Lamm and then finally going tubes/active. The Vitus was easily the best build and parts quality and sounded great like all did.
Having this hobby, a dedicated room and a lot of time to listen is a dream. Especially work still keeps me away from this dream a little unfortunately ![]()
Of course there are end game components. The BHK300’s are for me. That’s what I told myself when buying them. I can’t afford any amp that could be significantly better, so I’ll focus on other areas of the system since the amps are end game. Until the BHK600s started shipping. I can’t afford them now but suddenly the 300s aren’t seeming quite so end game.
It sounds cliché but there is always something better out there. I did not want the 600’s to massively outshine my 300’s but they did. The trade-in helped but still a bunch of cash to outlay. The next jump to a mega muscle amp like Gryphon would be out of my range and I would feel it would take that kind of leap to better them. I have not directly compared high wattage Pass A and AB amps but I am confident that the 600’s are competitive. For now, they are “end game” for me. Fortunately there are less expensive upgrades to be had in source components.
Sometimes, even more expensive components are to a noticeable amount different related to their improvement and we will not only appreciate where they’re better but also notice what’s missing.
That’s especially happening when switching between different concepts.
Like streaming! Lol
results?
As far as streaming we have demoed:
Grimm MU1
Aurender N30SA
Aurender N30SA + MC1 Clock
Taiko Audio Extreme
We will hopefully purchase the Taiko later this week. It’s mind blowing good.
You and all that expensive gear!!! Mind boggling.
(said pot to kettle)
Love it!
And it’s only $30k! Bargain
It is built like a tank!! Impressive.


