Conceived and designed as a collaborative effort by Garth Leerer and Michael Yee, the Phonomena line of solid state phono stages is a true audiophile bargain.
Would you believe an audiophile-quality, fully configurable phono stage designed and built in the USA for $600.00? And would you believe that it is audiophile-quality-enough to do justice to a Benz Micro SLR phono cartridge? CES 2008 was proof enough for the people who took the time to listen to the combination.
All Phonomena phono stages offer an incredible number of gain and loading options and will truly work correctly with any phono cartridge and will satisfy anyone’s listening tastes.
We are happy to have the opportunity to offer these truly exceptional phono stages. For those of you on a budget, here is the perfect opportunity to upgrade your phono stage to audiophile performance levels without breaking the bank. For experience audiophiles, the Super Nova will take your system to the outer reaches of performance.
For questions about Phonomena phono stages please call 573-696-3551 or email info@audiointelligent.com.
The new Musical Surroundings Phonomena II Phono Stage from Michael Yee is a replacement for the award winning Phonomena. The Phonomena II is based on the existing Nova Phonomena but without the battery pack.
The Phonomena II is a complete phonograph preamplifier with RIAA equalization that amplifies the output signal of a phonograph cartridge, either moving-coil or moving-magnet, up to a nominal "line level". The Phonomena II may be used with a receiver or an integrated amplifier. If you use separate components, a line level control unit (preamplifier) is required before the power amp, since there is no independent volume control for the Phonomena II unit. The Phonomena II's power supply connects to the wall with the supplied wall-mount transformer.
Specifications:
Gain Switches: 40, 44, 46, 48, 50, 51.5, 52.7, 53.7, 56, 57.5, 58.4, 59.4, 60dB
Input Loading Switches: 30, 40, 50, 59, 80, 100, 121, 150, 243, 280, 380, 475,660, 1k, 2k, 50k, 100k Ohms
Dimensions: 8.5"W x 6"D x 2"H
Weight: 3lbs
Warranty: 3 years
Click here for the Phonomena II owners manual.
Retail Price: $600.00
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The Nova Phonomena is a battery powered phono stage with incredible flexibility and performance. Based on the discrete, dual mono circuit developed by designer Michael Yee for the SuperNova, the Nova has rear panel accessible switches for gain and loading. It features 2 rechargeable internal NiMH dual mono battery packs with Smart Sensing auto recharge feature. All AC and charging circuits automatically disconnect when listening in battery mode. The Nova features a cool proximity detection switch on the front panel with status LEDs for changing mode.
The Musical Surroundings Nova Phonomena is a complete phonograph preamplifier with RIAA equalization that amplifies the output signal of a phono cartridge, either moving coil or moving magnet, up to a nominal "line level". The Nova Phonomena may be used with a receiver or an integrated amplifier. If you use separate components, a line level control unit (preamp) is required before the power amp, since there is no independent volume control for the Nova Phonomena. The Nova's power supply is internal and connnects to the wall with the supplied wall mount transformer.
Specifications:
Gain Switches: 40, 44, 46, 48, 50, 51.5, 52.7, 53.7, 56, 57.5, 58.4, 59.4, 60dB
Input Loading Switches: 200pF/300pF, 30, 40, 50, 59, 80, 100, 121, 150, 243, 280, 380, 475, 660, 1k, 2k, 50k, 100k Ohms
Discrete, dual mono circuitry
Dimensions: 10"W x 10 7/8"D x 3"H
Weight: 5lbs
Warranty: 3 years
Click here for the Nova Phonomena owners manual.
Retail Price: $999.00
The SuperNova is a three input phono preamp intended for use with more than one turntable or a turntable with more than one tonearm. There is user adjustable loading and gain for each of the inputs. The loading and gain is set via switches and is accessible from the rear of the chassis.
Switching between the inputs does not actually switch the inputs and loading. Instead, it has three independent front ends--the current source is switched to the one that will be active. The outputs are summed into the backend circuitry. In this way no switching occurs in the signal path when not using the switched attenuator.
The SuperNova is fully dual-mono and is powered from a remote dual mono power supply. The remote power supply supports NiMH rechargeable batteries but is designed to work perfectly without the batteries. The batteries will allow the SuperNova to run completely isolated from the wall power for a period of 3 hours. There are 4 independent charging circuits for the 4 battery packs.
The SuperNova has an 11 position variable output switched attenuator that allows direct connection to a power amplifier.
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• Handles 3 Phono Inputs. |
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• Gain user adjustable from 40 to 60 dB. |
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• Loading is user adjustable from 30 Ohms to 100kOhms. |
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• Independent Gain and Loading settings for each of the 3 Phono Inputs. |
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• There are no “signal path” switches except for switched attenuator if used. |
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• Normal “Line Out", and “Variable” outputs. |
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• The variable output Switched Attenuator can drive a power amp directly. |
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• Uses Large Area Monolithic Super Matched Pairs for lowest noise performance. |
Remote Power Supply Features:
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• Rechargeable batteries |
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• The charging circuits completely disconnect from the batteries when in battery mode. |
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• Optically coupled voltage monitors will wake up the processor to engage the charging of the batteries if the batteries are |
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discharged enough. |
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• Four, seven cell NiMH “AA” packs, one for each positive and negative power supply, and each channel. |
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• Four separate charging circuits. |
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• Positive and Negative battery packs are charged separately in case there is different current usage between positive and |
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negative power supplies. This prevents repeated overcharging one battery pack while undercharging the other. |
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• The batteries will be “topped off” by putting the unit into charge mode if there is no activity for a week. |
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• Fully Dual Mono even when not in Battery Mode. |
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• The power supply has been designed to sound excellent even without the batteries installed. |
| How the Limited Attenuator Works: |
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Gain in a typical system: |
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Moving Coil Phono Stage 60dB |
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Line Amp 18dB |
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Power Amp 30dB |
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Total Gain 108dB |
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Required Attenuation -30dB |
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Gain with the SuperNova Limited Attenuator: |
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Moving Coil Phono Stage 40dB |
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Power Amp 30dB |
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Total Gain 70 dB |
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Required Attenuation -5db |
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Most audio systems have far too much gain. The excess gain needs to reduced by setting an attenuator by a typical –30dB. By fine tuning the SuperNova gain switches and using the Limited Attenuator, typical listening can be done with little or no excess gain. By reducing unneeded gain, the system does not need to work as hard, thereby achieving a more natural sound. The extra 25dB gain equates to about 20 times more work, imagine working 20 times harder than you need to.
The Limited Attenuator has a major advantage over a standard passive attenuator. A passive attenuator typically has significant output impedance creating sensitivity to the particular type of output cable. The SuperNova Attenuator has much lower output impedance.
Click here for the SuperNova owners manual.
Retail Price: $3200.00
