As a die-hard Vinyl lover, I can safely say that finding the right phono stage is absolutely essential in getting the best from your collection. A good phono preamp will take the sound to the next level, and leave you feeling like you’re hearing your records for the first time. I know this because my life-long love affair with LPs underwent a revolution, if you’ll pardon the expression, when I first bought a truly nice phono amp.

I first got into records because my Dad had a small collection of old Juke Boxes with classic Rock ‘n’ Roll ‘45s. Watching those wonderful machines as they responded to the press of a clunky button – the arm jolting into action and lowering the needle perfectly onto the record – was one of my favourite things in the world. I loved it almost as much as I loved the sound. Not the sound of the music itself (though of course I loved that too, and I became a huge fan of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis, and the whole style of Rock ‘n’ Roll, before I also got into blues and soul), but that sound the needle makes when it first rests on the vinyl, and up until the point when the music starts. To me it was, and still is, the sound of wonderful anticipation.

Of course, the phono amp and indeed the complete music world has changed since then, first with tape cassettes: they were considered attractive, compact and neat, at the time, and they had fantastic recording possibilities, but on the downside they were also easily breakable and often frustrating when it came to fast forwarding or re-winding; then CDs, which were technologically cutting edge but, again, broke easily. Now we have MP3s, which, suffice it to say, I’m not a fan of. For the sake of a digital format that is compatible with computers and laptops, a lot of quality has been sacrificed.

Nothing, especially a pile of formless data in a hard drive, will ever replace my beloved vinyl collection, which has always accompanied me as I grew up. When I obtained a promotion a few years back, I decided to treat myself to a new sound system, and I picked out a beautiful Mono Channel Reference phono stage that looked beautiful in my lounge, and I rediscovered my vinyl. Listening through the phono preamp was an incredible experience, and I never looked back.

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