Benz Gold is on it's way.

[royphil345]

Glad to hear it's working out. I just know the whole time I had my Rotel phono stage, I was never really crazy about how my vinyl sounded. Like you, I was very slow to replace it. It seemed like a quality unit, parts quality was exceptional and I couldn't really put my finger on anything it was doing wrong.

If reliability worries are the only thing stopping you from considering the Jolida... I wouldn't worry. It's hybrid, very quiet, parts quality looks good. The only tubes are the two 12AX7 preamp output tubes that should last between 5 and 10 years. I still have to wonder how good that Benz would sound with loading set in the recommended range.

JRA... I ended up using the NOS Brimar tubes after all. After getting better acquainted with the Jolida... It seemed my problem was that the output of my cart (.5mv) was right on the borderline of what's recommended for the two moving coil gain settings. .5mv is actually the exact cutoff between the two. The lower gain setting sounded too "stuffy" with the stock tubes, so I just ignored it from then on. The NOS Brimar tubes had higher gain and sounded worse on the high gain setting I was using than any of the other tubes I tried. The GT 12AX7-M sounded pretty darn good at the high gain setting, but I was still wishing there was an "in between" gain setting at times.

Just recently thought to try the Brimar tubes with the lower gain setting and it's sounding like the magic recipe to me so far. Clearer, sweeter and just more "right" sounding than the GT tubes and higher gain setting.

Goes to show you can never have too many "tweak" settings and the ability to roll tubes can be very helpful indeed.

...Leaves me with a spare set of GT 12AX7-M that would probably sound beyond excellent on the high gain setting with a cartridge having a lower .3mv output... like a Benz or something... LOL