Vincent PHO 701 Phono Preamplifier MM/MC w/Outboard Power Supply - Black

Let me say before I ordered the Vincent PHO 701 I tried the Puffin Preamp. The Puffin was very good and some features were absolutely remarkable - not even available on any other preamp to my knowledge. But after living with the Puffin for a while it just didn't seem to have the separation of instruments that I desired. So I decided to try something else - the Vincent PHO 701. Within literally 15 seconds of the Vincent be incorporated into the loop, I was absolutely blown away! I was hearing things that I didn't know existed in the recording. This phenomenon was not a one-off. It was on every recording from big band jazz to classical to rock! I'm absolutely in love with the Vincent! While the Puffin with its click and pop remover was unbelievable, when I listened to the Vincent's sound, I forgot the clicks and pops. It was that engaging!Bottom line, the Vincent PHO 701 is a few hundred more than the Puffin. But at the end of the day it's all about the music and in my opinion that makes the Vincent a no-brainer!The equipment I'm using is a Rega Planar P3 with an Ortofon Blue cartridge. And the sound keeps getting better and better as the Vincent and the Rega are breaking in.

Wanted to wait a bit for this review to give the Vincent PHO 701 a chance to show its colors with different music. I must say I have been more than pleased with adding this preamp to my system built around enjoyingMy vinyl music in a two channel audio setup.The Vincent 701 was very well packaged and hooked up easily. Manual was well written and easy to follow. Soundstage was wide and warm and impressive separating vocals and each instrument. It produced very well on each genre of music I played from detailed symphony to rock and roll. Low volume to high the sound was rich and not fatiguing to my ear. Build of unit is super solid and looks amazing. I appreciate the separation of the amp and power supply asThe background was black with no hum or pop just clean sound. Although the included 12au7 tube sound was quite nice I could not resist a bit of tube rolling with vintage vac tubes and found a vintage British Mullard to be just perfection.I would strongly recommend the Vincent PHO 701 it has taken my vinyl to amazing new levels.

This preamp matches my system well. I have a Clear Audio Concept Wood turntable with a Clarify tonearm and Concept MC cartridge. This preamp can be tuned to the impedance level of the cartridge and provides clean sound to my Marantz SR7012 receiver with sound through Klipsch Forte III speakers. The quality of the pieces are well-matched and I have never heard vinyl sound so good. The lynch pin is the Vincent PHO 701 Preamplifier which produces the clean crisp sound from the turntable at a fraction of the cost of other preamplifier. Plus, it is a tube preamp. Other writers suggest that tubes create a warmer sound. I don't know what I "warm" sound is, all i know is this system sounds fantastic and I am glad I have this preamplifier. There was some initial buzzing but grounding the turntable to the preamplifier and the preamplifier to the receiver eliminated the buzz and it sounds great! Highly recommend.

I was using the Pro-Ject MM Phono preamp prior to purchasing this one. After upgrading my power cleaner and spending upwards of $1,000 on cables, it seemed criminal to not upgrade to a more robust preamp.I'm not a big fan of flourishes in product reviews, but this upgrade made a night and day difference to the audio quality. The added depth and warmth to the music makes me regret not purchasing this earlier. The added sonic clarity makes it sound like the performance is taking place in front of you.The isolated power supply was a huge consideration for me. Also being able to fine tune the preamp to the stylus cartridge you're using is fantastic.If all you're trying to do is play vinyl on your turntable and you're using $10 cables, this is probably more than you need and you won't be able to fully appreciate its capabilities, but if you've gone big with your system but don't quite want to go another $2,000 on a preamp, this one is very capable and an amazing value for the price.

The Vincent PHO-701 only sends the left channel to both the L and R stereo channels using the USB cable to a computer. You may not even be aware of this problem if you don't know how the song should sound, I picked up on it because the lead guitar sounded very faint, almost like it was in another room, and I knew it should have been much more pronounced. I have purchased two of these and both had the exact same problem. I have attached a screen capture of a song recorded 3 separate times to illustrate what I mean. The top spectrum image is how this song should look, the L and R stereo channels are not identical to one another. The recording below the first clearly shows both channels are identical spectrum images and are of the left channel only. In the third recording, I reversed the L/R connections into the 701 and now you see two identical spectrum images of the right channel being sent to the L and the R stereo channels. This only happens with the USB output, I tested the RCA outputs on a small desktop stereo and the L and R had the proper separation and the sound quality was good. Unfortunately I bought this for the USB output so the 701 will not work for me. If I didn't need the USB output I think I would be able to give it 5 stars so depending on your situation this might well be a great option.Vincent PHO 701 Phono Preamplifier MM/MC w/ Outboard Power Supply - Black

Purchased one of these a year ago off of Amazon. The power supply makes a buzzing noise if you listen closely. Now its in the signal path. No support from Vincent or local distributor. Power supply cannot be purchased separately so now I have an expensive set of book ends.

At first I admit I was a little disappointed when I first added this to my stack. Then I changed tubes and added a tungsten tube from the 50’s and then the whole soundstage opens and the detail and clarity became exceptional. The unit is quiet and gorgeous. I am very happy with this purchase.