John ‘Jay Jay’ French was guitarist in metal band Twisted Sister and always audiophile at heart. For online magazine Tracking Angle he reviewed our PW1, became fascinated by it and did an interview with PW1 designer Peter van Willenswaard. We copy some excerpts below, but don’t forget to check out his full review and the interview at Tracking Angle.
“I consider the mc phono stage, with the difficult job of raising the output from low output moving coil cartridges to a voltage that can then be amplified through a preamp or integrated amplifier as one of the great challenges in audio design in general and especially so in vinyl reproduction.
It’s not just a tube vs. solid state debate (although there certainly can be differences there), the question of power supply isolation becomes a very important challenge to overcome as well.
(…)
Next up, one of my favorite albums Janis Ian’s Breaking Silence. I have worn out my 33⅓ version so I just received two replacements: an Analog Productions 33⅓ version (APP-027) and a 45 Analogue Productions edition (APP-027 45). As many years as I have spent in recording studios and hearing board mixes, I have rarely, if ever, heard an album with such dynamic range and clarity. It is a real workout for any cartridge and especially any phono stage. Differentiating the bottom end sonics—separating the bass guitar and the slide bass—is a real phono preamp test. The Pass again sounded just fine until I connected the PW1. Tonal separation, especially in the bottom region, was simply far better defined through the PW1.
(…)
If this phono stage was priced at 15k I wouldn’t be shocked, but at under 6k, it’s one of the great analog bargains and deserves serious consideration if this is your financial playing field. I will miss the returned review sample, but I ordered one for myself and that says it all! Highly recommended!!!”
“I ordered one for myself and that says it all! Highly recommended!!!” – John ‘Jay Jay’ French, Tracking Angle
