Nearby: Zen Amp | Phono Scratch-Pad
I've been (re)exploring the world of vinal. In short, I absolutely love it. Further, my wife loves it (as she puts it, "it seem to have more... 'texture!'") which helps the cause :). After burning my arm on tubes several times switching interconnects it became clear a better way of selecting inputs was required. After pricing the various pre-amps that I had heard were transparent and comparing prices with what I had in my wallet, it became clear a home-grown solution was pretty much my only option. A few suggestions from the folks over at the Decware and Hagerman forums, a DIY Bugle phono preamp, and a group buy on high quality RCA jacks mixed together was the basis for my 'Zen Friend' - an selector box / phono preamp designed to complement my Zen amp.
A scratch-pad photo album of the Zen Friend provides some additional details of this construction, but to jump the gun here is the final version.
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This little beast is extremely quiet and quite transparent. Perhaps not the final word in audiophile quality, but far better than I would have expected and certainly greater than the sum of the individual parts. For those interested in sed parts, here they are: