Era Gold V / PSU1

It is one of the very few phono stage preamps ever to remain in Stereophile magazine's class-A recommended section for four years! It still features as a Stereophile recommended product.A fixed gain RIAA phono stage preamp, the Era Gold V marked a "sea change" in phono stage preamp design. The Era Gold V pushed bandwidth wide open, something phono stage preamps just didn't do! It brought high stability video frequency technology to vinyl to the surprise of many. Musical boundaries were broken down to reveal sound-scapes extending well beyond the listening room! And from normal commercial pressings at that! It also brought about an understanding about "burn-in" that few hi-fi enthusiasts had known before. Burn-in was well understood by precision ADC (analogue to digital) chip technology engineers early in development history. Common electronic components like resistors had been found to take as long as six months to settle to the point of maximum accuracy. Those reviewers patient enough discovered the secret depths of the Era Gold V phono stage preamp, which after 3 weeks being constantly on, delivered hitherto unknown levels of vinyl musicality. Unfortunately there were also impatient reviewers who could have prevented many vinyl lovers finding this gem, but for... "OK I'm going to nail my colours to the mast... (and I'm going to do the same with an arm next review...) Lucio has banned us from saying "best I've ever heard" "never heard anything as good" etc as it begs the question "compared to what?" and is often meaningless hype. But here I've listed the runners and riders, added the caveat "in my system and room" and finally "to my ears", so here goes. The Era Gold + Elevator EXP is the best phono combination for MC's I've ever heard - period... " [Geoff Husband, TNT Audio, July 2002] With the Elevator EXP step-up amplifier for moving coil, the moving magnet sensitivity Era Gold V, with a patient reviewer, had finally been recognised. Within 18 months word had reached the USA... Specification Input range: 2mV to 10mV Output (for input range): 252mV to 1,260mV (1.26V) Maximum input: 39mV rms Maximum output: 4.914V rms Gain: 42dB (126) at 1kHz Input impedance: 47k Ohms plus 100pf Output (driving/source) impedance: 910 Ohm Recommended load impedance: 10k Ohm or greater Noise at output: -65dB CCIR Q-pk Distortion: 0.02% RIAA accuracy: <0.5dB Channel balance: 0.2dB Channel separation: 64dB Size: (approx.) W: 107 x H: 50 x D: 180 (mm) inc. jacks