More for the common man!

Gram Amp 3 Fanfare RIAA Phono Stage Preamp

RIAA phono stage preamp dedicated to moving coil cartridge pre-amplification.

The Gram Amp 3 Fanfare phono stage preamp is a dedicated (fixed gain) conventional output moving coil cartridge phono stage preamp designed for moving coil phono cartridges having outputs in the range 0.3 to 1.2 mV (300 to 1,200 µV). Corresponding output being 240 - 954mV (1kHz reference).

The moving coil phono cartridge is often considered "high-end" so it and the phono stage preamp necessary for its use can be a "purchase too far" for the average vinyl fan.

Today however, there are some excellent "budget" moving coil phono cartridges. There are also budget priced moving coil phono stage preamps, but to be quite blunt, you'd be better-off sticking with moving magnet. The performance of budget moving coil phono stage preamps is often "lack-lustre", either because of cost constraints, or design ineptitude, or poor quality in manufacturing and test, or all three.

The Gram Amp 3 Fanfare phono stage preamp represents the "minima" in cost while giving a real "maxima" in moving coil performance. It's quite amazing considering its budget price tag.

Noise or Noise?

What would you rather have? A bit of hiss as you change records and reduced surface noise with an incredibly good musical performance when you're playing them? Or deathly silence between records and an even more dead sound decorated with clicks and pops?

Developed over a four year period the Gram Amp 3 Fanfare phono stage preamp is a highly stable fast phono stage preamp maintaining acceptably low self noise.

One of the biggest mistakes in any amplifier design, especially phono stage preamp design, is to treat self noise performance (hiss) as the "holy grail", when vinyl noise even on quiet pressings is considerably greater. Too many judge a phono stage preamp on its amount of hiss with no record playing.

The advantage in accepting a slightly higher hiss level, one that's still below the surface hiss of quiet vinyl, is an overall improvement in all aspects of musical performance, but few designers are willing to take such a step because magazine reviewers almost invariably view any audible hiss - even without a record playing - as a negative. The simple fact of physics is that the wide bandwidth required for a convincing musical performance doesn't come in ultra-low noise packages.

The Gram Amp 3 Fanfare approach to hiss versus bandwidth is nothing new to the Graham Slee line-up: all our phono stage preamps err on the wide-band side and obviously because of the physics produce a little hiss, but ask any owner if they'd consider any other brand? The answer will be a quite definite no!

But the really great bit is record noise! Clicks and pops can have a favourite record being allotted to the trash bin - it doesn't have to be like this. Because of how fast or wide-bandwidth a phono stage preamp such as the Gram Amp 3 Fanfare works, the annoying clicks and pops or even the distortion of a high level finale of a well worn record will often go unnoticed.

"Green" As Standard

For the 2009/2010 season (by December 2009), the Gram Amp 3 Fanfare phono stage preamp is supplied with a universal-voltage energy-efficient mains plug mounted power supply. It can also be powered by our PSU1 power supply which can be ordered separately.

Specifications

Input sensitivity range: 0.3mV to 1.2mV

Output for input sensitivity range: 240mV - 954mV

Maximum input level: 6.16mV (ref 1 kHz)

Gain (ref 1kHz): 58dB

Input impedance resistive: 100 Ohms

Output noise: (CCIR Q-Pk 22Hz-22 kHz) -67dB

Equivalent Input Noise (EIN) -125dB

Reproduction characteristic: RIAA within 0.5dB total deviation 20Hz-20kHz

Total Harmonic Distortion plus noise measured at 80Hz, 1kHz, 5.6 kHz and 16 kHz: less than 0.05% (typically <0.015% at 1 kHz)

Channel balance: 0.1dB

Channel separation: 64dB

Price

£212.75. Prices in GBP (pounds sterling) ex VAT/GST