Phasemation EA-350 Phono Amplifier
It’s been a long audiophile and vinyl journey to the Phasemation EA-350 Phono Amplifier ($6700). Even though I love all my components and value them equally, I must admit a soft spot for the very important phono stage. If you cheap out on one (beware, I’ve heard lousy expensive ones), no matter the quality of the cart/turntable, the sound is diminished. And likely, a worse effect than the inherent weaknesses heard in cartridge design and turntable/tonearm geometry. As such, vinylphiles, think long and hard (and save) for the very best phono stage you can afford for your particular situation.
During the past 30 years, I’ve heard, reviewed and owned countless phono stages. So, ending up at the Phasemation EA-350 as a final reference resting place (I can hear our team laughing at my suggestion of “final”), is something of a surprise. I’ll explain the surprise below.
Past star phono examples that come to mind include Rega’s Aria and the Sutherland Engineering Duo, my first serious phono stage and in my system not that long ago. Also, a DIY-looking box, the Paradox Pulse Audio Phono 70 Signature Phono Stage played well above its MSRP and recently got a massive boost by Fremer (and follow up just this month). Others heard at length include the splendid Audia Flight from Italy and numerous long stays as the reference phono from our friends at Allnic Audio, including the H-1202 and the LCR H-7000, one of the world’s great phono stages.
Before the thank yous, I’ll tell you about the EA-350’s passage to the island. As noted, my long-term reference has been the Allnic Audio H-7000 LCR Phono Stage. It has worked bump-free in my system for three years and I’m very grateful to David Beetles of Hammertone Audio, Allnic’s worldwide distributor, for the loan. It’s been a wonder in my system. It’s pricey ($16,400) and sounds gorgeous. And I’ve received no pressure from Beetles for its return. So what gives?
The great news is I have the H-7000 in and out of the system as warrants, but for the daily grind of reviewing (as Audiophilia has grown to a million uniques and 7 million page views over the past 10 years, my system is evolving almost daily) the Phasemation EA-350 ($6700) is a busy reviewer’s dream phono stage. We’ll talk about its sound a little later, but for my use—separate stereo and mono turntables/carts, both used daily—the EA-350 has 3 inputs, (2) XLR or (3) RCA, mono playback setting including two mono curves (Columbia and Decca), a mono switch, a subsonic filter and a degauss setting (on MC carts only, switch to Degauss setting, 30 seconds only—beware, more, and you can fry your cart). It’s the Swiss Army knife of phonos.
And, it sounds exceptional.
The mono switch, especially, is very important to me. And don’t think I haven’t begged and cajoled Beetles to ask Allnic legend, Kang Su Park to add one to his phono stages. No dice.
My thanks to Phasemation and especially North American distributor, Angie Lisi, for organizing shipping and arranging an accommodated purchase. Very much appreciated.
A Jack of all trades. A master of ? You’ll notice no loading dip switches, etc. Phasemation follows others in the segment with MC cartridge loading. Sure, a Jack of all trades, but serious MC loading tinkerers—and there are many—will be looking elsewhere for their final phono statement, such as my Allnic.
Like the phono stages I reviewed from Icon Audio and the Phasemation EA-550, loading is factory set internally. User hands-off. The Icon MC at 100Ω, the EA-350 at 117.5Ω. Interestingly, when reviewing less expensive phonos from Rega, Sutherland Engineering, Graham Slee, iFi Audio and others, cartridge loading is managed by the user. Happily, all my carts in the house (Phasemation, Shelter, Allnic Audio, Miyajima Labs, Pure Fidelity) love 100Ω. Gain for MC is a healthy 64 dB.
My Use
I cabled the Phasemation EA-350 ($6700) with Valhalla Nordost 2, extremely detailed and about the most musical and balanced cable I’ve heard (about 20K’s worth). Powering the vinyl front end was my MBL N51 Integrated Amplifier ($17,600) with my two ‘tables, stereo LPs on my Bergmann Audio Magne 10th Anniversary Turntable ($13,900 incl. arm) with Phasemation’s PP-2000 MC Phono Cartridge ($7000) and monos on my Pure Fidelity Harmony Turntable ($10,000 incl. arm) with a Miyajima Laboratory Infinity Monaural Cartridge ($3375).
As the image above shows, setup is straightforward. I was plugged in and spinning within minutes. The champagne colour of the front fascia is gorgeous as is the fit and finish. The buttons and toggles feel buttery good and the relays give a solid, satisfying click. I was eager to hear the unit straight of the box, but admit to only 50 hours break in before I sat down for a serious listen. The two month Covid/Japan shipping delay only heightened my expectations. As I listen daily post review, we’re into 400 plus hours and it’s still revealing little delights. Expect at least 100 hours ‘till you’re rocking near its design limits.
Out of the box, it did not disappoint. My list of six or seven stereo albums and my three favourite monos sounded much like I remember from my review time with the slightly bigger brother, the two-chassis Phasemation EA-550 Phono Amplifier, about 3Gs more than my new component. But, with twice the number of boxes, cabling, etc. And, to me, visually truncated compared to the sleek EA-350.
Features and Specifications
Phasemation, which, like other totally classy Japanese manufacturers, allows the product rather than a PR firm do the talking, says the EA-350 is ‘an all discreet, all step symmetric non-feedback phono amplifier that supports balance inputs and draws out the music’s reality and the artist’s passion’. Yes. Yes it does.
Features in addition to those mentioned above include:
A 1% grade metal film resistance with marginal rated capacity and reputed high sound quality parts such as a Mica capacitors using silvered Mica plates for dielectrics are used on the RIAA elements.
A 10mm thick aluminum is used on the front panel and the chassis is structured following Phasemation’s more expensive designs. The chassis body is a 1.6mm thick copper plated steel chassis base, and a 1.6mm thick copper plated steel cover preserving rigidity and decreasing magnetic strain.
Further, switches adopt high quality Rohm’s SiC diodes. Also, they use a high quality electrolytic capacitor which uses Nichicon’s low resistance electrode foil on the commutating capacitor. In addition, the decoupling adopts Elna RFS (SILMIC II) Miniature Capacitors. Low noise Zener diodes are used combined with the adoption of shunt regulators that exclude the feedback circuit and this ensures a fast and extremely low noise power circuit. And finally, a low leakage flux MC power transformer with an R-core and designed as a left/right independent power supply is used.
Input Type: MM/MC
Input Sensitivity: 2.5 mV/0.13 mV
Suitable Cartridge Output Impedance: 47 k-ohm or less/1.5 to 40 ohm
Gain: 38 dB/64 dB
Input Equivalent: S/N Ratio–120dBV/–140dBV
Rated Output Voltage: 200 mV (1kHz)
Rear Curve Tolerance: ± 0.5 dB (20Hz to 20kHz)
Output Impedance: 47 ohm
Power Consumption: 20W
External Dimensions: 430 (W) x 93 (H) x 362 (D)
Weight: 8.8kg
Sound
Sound was impressive out of the box with all the signposts pointing to a 100 hour plus fabulous experience. After five years with the 4K Sutherland Duo, two Allnics and two Phasemations in the system and blessed with several iterations of the Bergmann ‘table and very high quality MCs and phono cables (Allnic Audio, Cardas, Audioquest and Nordost), I was expecting a first rate immersive experience. Immersion finding itself in superior and highly accurate vocal and instrumental timbre, cracking imaging, special delivery dynamics with a wide and deep soundstage. Cartridge and ancillaries dependent, you’ll discover all these important audiophile attributes during the initial listening sessions.
As such, my expectations were met and exceeded.
After the first tell tale signs of a great phono experience, the following hours revealed subtle details making all the big picture attributes even more emphatic and impressive. With these superior phonos, I’m listening for delicate shades of instrumental timbre (even more accuracy of tone), and the aforementioned pinpoint imaging, but with more air and ambiance around the instrument/player/singer. This last attribution I’m finding the most elusive with high end phono stages. All good phonos designed and configured above a price point can do the big picture things. And here you’ll be mightily impressed. Both Phasemations I’ve reviewed capture these with apparent ease. And both, with maybe the slight edge to the EA-550, dig deep into the instrument’s tonal centre, overtones, resin, finger pressure, wood, metal(s), gut, etc. But for this type of ambience/detail in microcosm, Kang Su Park’s fantastic H-7000 LCR tube design for Allnic Audio is difficult to beat.
This is where no matter how good the solid state Phasemation is, and it is very, very good, it can’t compete in the weeds with the much more expensive Allnic. And with the H-7000, the sky’s the limit with tube rolling, making personal improvements even more available and interesting.
As for straight comparisons with similar MSRPs, the Phasemation is well ahead in detail and tone of the Sutherland and Allnic H-1202, both a couple of grand shy of the EA-350’s price. But a much fairer comparison than the H-7000. It should be said, though, the EA-350 is not a gulf apart from the H-7000, otherwise the Allnic would remain in my system daily, mono switch or not. It’s a great testament to the Phasemation designers, who are tops in both tube and solid state design (you can buy very expensive Phasemation tube phonos—now, that’d be a shootout!), the $6700 Phasemation can play in the H-7000’s yard.
So, what to buy? As I mentioned, research, listen, ask, then buy the best you can afford. Audiophilia folks are using iFi’s ZEN Phono and iPhono3 Black Label, under $300 and $1000 respectively. And loving them. And, I can’t recommend the new Allnic H-5500 ($5200) and the Sutherland Duo ($4000) highly enough. Our Assistant Editor, Karl Sigman loves his Pass Labs XP-17 Phono Stage ($4300). With the Phasemation EA-350 at $6700, you’ll be $1500 above the most expensive listed and be beating them all in vinyl refinement. As such, maybe one of the more inexpensive models mentioned may be a good start for you. All fulfill basic vinyl requirements in good to outstanding sound. Of course, all of them require concomitant ancillaries. So, there’s that.
The EA-350 produced gorgeous string sonorities in large orchestral works and delivered the goods on the human voice. So, an old Columbia original Elizabeth Schwarzkopf Mozart recital sounded glorious through the Phasemation multi functional mono circuit. To be honest, though, I found the switch between the Decca and Columbia curves not much more than a tone control. I pretty much keep it on the Decca curve indent. And male voices in stereo such as Tony Joe White Homemade Ice Cream (200g 45rpm 2LP Analogue Productions) gave everything a listener would want in groove and feel. Swamp rock as a true art form.
Conclusion
I put a lot of faith in my phono stages. If it’s happy, I generally am. As is the whole analog family. So, in your research, take your time and listen first, read second. Then buy what you can afford and continue on in a happy place ‘till you come to the next vinyl crossroads. If you can afford the expensive Phasemation at any of those crossroads, it’s a no brainer.
Further information: Phasemation
