Andover Audio SpinStage overview: Audiophile high quality, nice worth

At a look

Skilled’s Ranking

Professionals

• Works with each MM and MC phono cartridges
• Advance optimization choices for MM cartridges
• Heat, detailed sound

Cons

• Included RCA cable is a bit quick

Our Verdict

The Andover SpinStage actually shines when used with higher-priced cartridges, however this phono pre-amp can improve any turntable’s sound, and it may possibly develop with upgrades to your home-audio system.

Andover Audio, a Massachusetts firm identified for manufacturing high-quality, entry-level turntables and speaker programs, has added the SpinStage phono pre-amp to its lineup. The SpinStage is an excellent audio part that delivers a stunning variety of options and nice sound for the value. 

This overview is expounded to TechHive’s in-depth protection of the best turntables.

Numerous turntables characteristic a built-in phono stage nowadays, however there are many causes to think about using a discrete unit as a substitute. The primary—and most blatant—is that you simply personal a classic turntable and a receiver and neither of them have phono levels. The second is that you simply’ve upgraded the cartridge in your present turntable in an effort squeeze bit extra life out of it earlier than committing to an costly improve, however its onboard pre-amp is holding it again. The third is that you simply’re prepared for that costly improve, and also you need to get a fantastic phono pre-amp at an affordable worth.

The SpinStage sounds nice, and because it helps each shifting magnet (MM) and shifting coil (MC) cartridges, it’s versatile sufficient to assist years and even many years of turntable swapping and hi-fi experiments.

The aim of a phono pre-amp

James Barber/Foundry

The sign coming out of your turntable’s stylus and cartridge requires a lift to be loud sufficient to work along with your audio system. It’s probably the most important stage within the vinyl audio chain, and a step the place undesirable noise might be launched into the listening expertise.

If you wish to know why CDs have been so thrilling again in 1982, it was as a result of digital was imagined to eradicate all of the rumble from unbalanced turntables and electrical noise from dodgy phono levels.

An efficient phono pre-amp will amplify the sign to match the business customary RIAA curve with out introducing any undesirable noise into the listening expertise.

Transferring magnet and shifting coil cartridge assist

The SpinStage helps each shifting magnet and shifting coil phono cartridges. The cartridge is the digital unit that sits on the finish of the tonearm. The stylus plugs into the cartridge, which sends the unamplified sign to the phono pre-amp.

James Barber/Foundry

A shifting magnet cartridge is probably the most kind you’ll discover on an entry-level turntable. It makes use of a magnet in a coil of wires. Because the stylus traces the report’s grooves, the magnet strikes to generate {the electrical} sign that will probably be boosted by the pre-amp. This kind of cartridge generates increased output than a shifting coil; nevertheless it’s additionally heavier, so it’s much less able to monitoring subtleties within the grooves. Again on the constructive aspect, it’s simpler to exchange the stylus on a shifting magnet cartridge.

A shifting coil cartridge reverses the equation: The magnet is stationary, and the advantageous coil strikes in response to the stylus motion within the grooves of the vinyl. This permits the cartridge to be lighter, however the sign it generates requires much more amplification in comparison with a shifting magnet cartridge.

This can be a simplified rationalization of how the vinyl audio chain works. The essential factor to notice right here is that the SpinStage is flexible sufficient to work with a shifting magnet cartridge, and it may possibly nonetheless be helpful in the event you ever swap to a shifting coil.

Andover Audio SpinStage design

James Barber/Foundry

The SpinStage is a lovely piece of drugs with a bead-blasted, anodized aluminum case. There’s an RCA auxiliary enter, so you should use the field as a pass-through to an amplifier or pre-amp with a restricted variety of inputs.

There are additionally separate RCA inputs for turntables which have both shifting magnet or shifting coil cartridges. A selector swap on the again permits you to select between these two choices. With lengthy sufficient cables, you can probably join two turntables if one had a shifting coil and the opposite had a shifting magnet cartridge, however the location of the swap would make it onerous to shuttle between the 2.

There’s a floor wire connection and a confusingly labeled RCA “aux out” connection for sending the sign to your amplifier, pre-amp, or receiver. An influence swap on the entrance panel additionally toggles between turntable and auxiliary inputs. An LED standing gentle glows white for phono and inexperienced for aux.

James Barber/Foundry

The auxiliary port acts as a direct passthrough, in order that sign isn’t touched by the SpinStage’s inside electronics. Phono processing consists of remoted dual-mono circuitry to attenuate crosstalk and maximize stereo imaging.

There’s additionally a separate MC achieve stage with ultra-low-noise discrete transistors. This type of transconductance topology is often discovered solely in costlier designs. There aren’t any capacitors within the phono stage’s direct sign path, which reduces distortion and qualifies as one other characteristic not normally discovered at this worth.

Superior tinkering choices

The SpinStage permits the listener to regulate the enter resistance and capacitance to match the values really helpful by the shifting magnet cartridge producer. A sequence of DIP switches on the underside of the unit might be flipped to regulate the settings. It’s a considerate characteristic, even when it’s not one thing the overwhelming majority of SpinStage customers will ever want to think about. In case you’re drifting as much as the shifting magnet cartridge heights that can require an adjustment right here, you’ll know from all of the analysis you probably did earlier than dropping the money on that new cartridge.

So why has Andover Audio included such a characteristic? As a result of the SpinStage is designed to be versatile sufficient to assist all kinds of cartridges with options that aren’t in any other case accessible in a phono stage at this worth level.

Listening to the Andover Audio SpinStage

James Barber/Foundry

I examined the SpinStage 3 ways: I first linked my Technics SL-1200 direct-drive turntable with an Ortofon OM 10 MM cartridge and stylus to the Spinstage, which I then plugged right into a NAD S100 stereo preamplifier and a NAD 2400 Monitor Collection amplifier linked to B&W P5 floor-standing audio system.

Listening to a 180-gram urgent of the 2016 remaster of David Bowie’s 1972 LP The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, there was a right away improve intimately when in comparison with the NAD PP-1 phono pre-amp I’d been utilizing earlier than. There was longer decay on chiming guitar components and higher separation of particular person drums on the low finish.

I subsequent switched to the Fluance RT81 belt-drive turntable, which comes with an Audio Technica AT95E cartridge and a built-in phono stage that may be shut off if desired. The AT95E is an excellent entry-level cartridge, nevertheless it’s nonetheless on the decrease finish of the audiophile curve.

Fluance’s built-in phono stage is excellent, so I used to be particularly curious to see if the SpinStage might make a distinction with the AT95E. The distinction was not dramatic, however the SpinStage supplied noticeable enchancment over the Fluance phono stage.

Is the Andover Audio SpinStage a worthwhile funding?

What’s the takeaway from all of this? The higher the cartridge in your turntable, the higher the SpinStage will sound. In different phrases, this pre-amp will preserve tempo with upgrades to the remainder of your house audio system for a great very long time—or no less than till you’re able to make the leap to turntables and phono pre-amps that price hundreds of {dollars}.