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The phono stars aligned themselves for me this afternoon. Firstly thanks Cheeky and the Graham Slee loner program I had a Fanfare and Reflex-C. Secondly another SNA member loaned me his Whest PS.20. Finally, the family took a field trip without me and I was home alone. The Dynavector P75 mkii has been my staple phono this year. Seemed like a good time to kick 90db+ and have a duel. No doubt I’ll make a few technical errors and hopefully the analog consigliere won’t need to whack me. I’ll quickly start with the Graham Slee Fanfare; a modestly priced dedicated fixed loading MC. I just want to say that for the price the Fanfare and its MM brethren the Gram Amp 2 SE are the best budget phono’s I’ve heard. Forget that Cambridge they sold you when you got your first Rega/Pro-ject/whatever, forget those cheap tube things that will not really improve that much by tube rolling. These two are the real deal! I’m moving on without saying much as the Fanfare was very similar in signature to the Reflex-C only it didn’t have the same grip and lost a bit of composure when things got loud and complex. Still, if I had to choose my first phono again the Fanfare or Gram Amp would be it. Ok, onto to the next dish, the Graham Slee Reflex-C; again a dedicated fixed loading MC only this on comes with a fancy PSU. Flatter and wider than the Fanfare the Reflex-C is small enough to tuck away and big enough to still show off. That perhaps describes the phono well – a bit of a show off. I listened to this one for 4 days of foot tapping and grinning. A nice wide soundstage, buckets of bass and just a general sense of exuberance in its presentation. I found myself replaying the same sides of LP’s just cause things were sounding so fun. A couple highlights on the listening front. Firstly due to the generous bass rock and metal sounded superb. Tool’s Undertow was as dark and menacing as it’s ever been and the guitars just sounded so chunky and rich. Yello’s touch was absolutely cavernous but perhaps the biggest joy came from Talking Head’s Little Creatures. I hadn’t these songs since back in the day and the Reflex-C rendered them with real power. I was very impressed and could have easily listened to this one all day. A quick note on the Slee gear – both the Fanfare and Reflex-C like being left on and I felt they improved over several days of being on. Next I switched back to my Dynavector P75 Mk II: a MM/MC switchable phono with variable loading and a special setting that I don’t care to explain. The Dynavector had noticeably less gain than the Slee phono’s that perhaps made it sound a little understated. Its bass is not as deep but it is very nicely controlled. The Dynavector is very smooth and controlled in general. Anything where vocals and strings mixed it was sublime and it did a really nice job keeping the dupstep of Zomby sounding musical. It’s does an incredible job of keeping Leonard Cohen’s Old Ideas in line with great realism. I’ve found on other phono’s, including the Slee’s, his voice can become overcooked. Generally this has been a very easy to live with phono that can play all types of music without fuss. It treats poor recording with kindness and lets good recordings shine. Lastly was the Whest PS.20; a MM/MC switchable phono with a shiny separate power supply and variable loading – only to change the loading you need to order special pins. I didn’t think I was going to get this one going as finding out how to set it up took a little work and I didn’t have a US power cable on hand. But I’m so glad I got it all together. WOW! It’s just so clean and tight – I never new I had a top end until now. It’s also got truckloads of gain. So loud. It’s way may expensive than the other units so to make a comparison hardly seems fair. The Whest is very detailed and I just kept on hearing new things. I found myself just grabbing album after album and only playing 1 track just to see what this baby would do. Trentemoller’s Last Resort and Pantha Du Prince’s Black Noise were spectacular and it really latched onto all the instruments in Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog. As a negative sometimes the Whest suffered from Audiophile forwardness. I didn’t enjoy Tool or Metallica nearly as much as on the Slee. It was just a bit much with volume. To conclude I enjoyed all the phono stages. I couldn’t pick a favorite as they all had their own strong points. I can see why so many vinyl nuts have got more than one rig. Both the Reflex-C and Whest were very exciting in their own way…the Dynavector remained the golden mean. Perhaps I’ll become a phono junky. Compared to elements in the analog chain they are relatively to change around and compare and have a significant effect on the sound of the system. I need to spend some more time with he Whest as I’ve only just discovered it today. There may even be a part 2 as I’d really love to hear a Nighthawk again and I’ve had a couple offers for a couple other phono stages… System: Amp - Audio Space 300B Speakers – Hoyt-Bedford Type 1 Subs – Omega X 2 TT – yes Cart – Denon 103r w/Midas Body Cables – Krispy Kables Cat - Tokinese