Atoll PH100 Phono Preamp $700

(2 1/2h, 12 5/8w, 8d, MM & MC)

Atoll of France (3 year warranty) is building an incredible reputation for edge of the art sound at prices we can afford. Atoll actually makes its products in its own house in France! They don’t design them in France and have them built by a job house in China.

Atoll thoughtfully designs its whole family of products. Atoll spends money on good parts and circuits. They don’t waste money on fancy feet or gingerbread on the face plate.

PH100 is built on Atoll’s “mini” sized chassis. There’s no audible benefit to building a phono preamp as big as a power amp. PH100 has a chunky aluminum face plate and is built on a solid metal chassis.

It uses TWO, low noise transformers within a FOUR linear power supply design. The power supply is on board- no wall warts for Atoll. Power supply filter capacitance is 11,280uF. That’s comparable to many 50 watt amplifiers. While it pays to have some beef, it’s overkill for a phono preamp to go gonzo.

MM input impedance is 47k or can be changed to 100k. Input capacitance can be 100pF or nothing. MM gain is 40dB. PH100’s performance with MM carts is very good, arguably, as far as it makes sense to go.

MC settings can be 47dB gain or 60dB. You get four loading options. Being a transistor design, vs SUT (step up transformer) for MC, PH100 will do best with MCs like Ortofon’s Quintet Blue which has an output of ,5mV. For MC carts of lower output, it’s best to run Ortofon’s ST7 ($879) SUT.

Atoll’s strength is that it accomplishes the vast majority of what we want in a phono preamp at a great price. It’s outstanding on MM which is what the vast majority of our customers run. If you stick with MM it can be argued, you’re wasting money to spend more.