looking for bare board nice phono preamp

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#4
Just search through this forum a bit - there are several pretty decent projects with boards you can purchase for reasonable prices. A couple that immediately come to mind:
  • VSPS and Phonoclone
  • Rod Elliott's P06
There are many others. I would trust something that's been run through the gauntlet of this forum versus an unfamiliar design from Ebay.
 
#9
Being on diyaudio it's normal to believe you can get better with new projects , i can't add much to your requirements over what the orhers already told you, but some things shouldn't be missed.Buy this, change its electrolitic capacitors and op-amps with someting more modern if you won't like the sound although there's a very big chance you already got the best electrolitics in it.You'll see what i mean after opening it if its parts are still the original ones.Don't buy it if it's fixed unless it's fixed by aiwa dealers themselves until the 90's. https://hifigoteborg.se/store/preamplifiers/aiwa-c-22.html
The seller being from Germany might be a good thing.You won't find anything more good looking and solid than that for the price.Unfortunately i am the main culprit for making this Aiwa line price go higher cause i advertised it a lot.Three years ago you could still get the whole line for 20 dollars anywhere...Some people followed some silly reviews they'd pick up from the internet about it and talked it bad, but don't trust reviews before listening to the thing! I'd been smarter probably if i never talked about it so maybe those reviews weren't really silly but Wise...Electrically it's a very solid design sold by both Sony (under Wega name) and Aiwa, but Aiwa looks and feels really cool.Just get it an if you'll need modding it you'll get all the support you need.Some say the amp is better...i never had it though, but you can still consider buying the whole line cause there isn't anything smaller and more good looking ever built by a company yet it needs to be chequed first cause the cassette player can be very difficult to fix being very stuffed with wires and compact while the amp is based on stk chips that can be burned and fantastically difficult .to get as originals.Until now i'm probably the only one who believes in NEO 😉 And you can find its service manual including the bare pcb artwork online...
 
#10
The Muffsy is a good op-amp phono pre. MM only, though Harvard also offers an MC step-up amp. Comparatively cheap, easy to build, good SQ. IIRC board is available or a kit with end plate and all components.

I built a Muffsy and was using it for about 18 months before I completed a BigBottle valve phono pre and that's stepped things up to another level. Sadly, BigBottle boards are no-longer available...
 
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