Audion Pre-Amplifier Range

Audion Phono Stages MM & MC

Moving Coil "Head Amplifiers"- These are active devices, with power supplies, that amplify the tiny voltage from moving coil cartridges so that it approximates the normal voltage from a moving magnet cartridge. The phono stage must still further amplify and then equalize the signal. What is RIAA? do I need it.

This MC stage has been especially designed for the lowest ouptut cartridges available on the market today!!! Now using the same advanced circuitry as our world class Quattro. It is a transformerless design offering superb speed and resolution. Please note that this unit needs to be connected to a phono stage as well.

The following was taken from Hi-end Audio’s recommended pre-amp section August 2006

AUDION PREMIER PHONO STAGE- While the Audion, top of the line, Quattro is one of only two models in our "Class A" preamplifiers. Personally, I would be very surprised if the Premier was not at the least an excellent performer, since the company obviously knows what it's doing, and the model isn't that different from the Quattro, in either design or execution. Here's the (European) reader's letter, with only minor editing

Audion Premier MM Phonostage:
I`ve tried a couple of Phonostages, Cambridge 640 P SS, the tubed Bellari and the built in of my previous AURA SS amplifier. I`ve been hearing into friends Mark Levinson phonostage, Onix, the Benz-Lukaschek on Mark Levinson gear, and the Audion Premier beats them all hands down. The Cambridge is proof that there is more to building a phonostage than perfect measurements. The Bellari is a fine piece of gear and reacts nicely to tube rolling, but there are limitations. The Benz phonostage is very nice, but too bright and forwardish. The Aura feels better than the Bellari, but feels a bit to analytical without actually delivering it.

Soundstage of the Audion is believeably big, and really it is up to the recordings capabilites, with no artifices. Musicians are convincingly placed. Noise level is pitchblack. There is a bit of hum when cranked all the way up, but that does not matter anyway since that would go unnoticed at those soundlevels. Roll off -in both directions- is not noticeable. I would call it seamless. Resolution is by far the best I`ve heard, with absolutely convincing depth even at very low listening levels. It does not beautify bad records, but it gives sparkle to magnificient recordings, and preserves tonality, rhythm and sense of space. By any standards, I would call this neutral, but not sterile or warm or tubey.

Conclusion:
I will not modify this piece of equipment, because I feel like no corners have been cut to deliver a truly remarkable experience that is rare nowadays. The Audion Premier`s performance is in every sense a thing of beauty, and it let`s you be there and witness the performance." Arthur Salvetore

Audion Premier Line Level Pre-amplifier

All our pre-amps feature a ground lift switch and an earthing post. This is designed to assist in making your system quieter. The ground lift helps remove possible ground loops and with the earth binding post, a proper earth can be installed directly to the pre-amp.. See our notes late about earthing and systems. 

Audion Premier Line Level and Phono MM pre-amplifier

Line level and MM Phono pre-amps in either single or twin box. As with all our pre-amps they feature a transformerless design direct cathode coupled with no input, interstage or output would components making these pre-amps extremely fast and capable of handling the most intricate and detailed passages of music that can be shown them. Outstanding performance, lightning quick response curves and terrific transparency.

Audion Premier Quattro 2 and 4 box MC/ Line pre-amplifier

The Premier Quattro preamp is a two or four box preamp, totally hard wired using silver wire with specially selected components to make it one of the best sounding preamps in the world!

The Quattro is available in our new design Uni-chassis’, and includes an MC stage for even the most sensitive of cartridges, presenting itself as a high-end, high quality product capable of handling a massive array of sources. The Quattro also includes the same silver wire in the signal path, with specially selected and matched components including some tanatalum resistors, etc etc. There are 4 line level inputs and an MC input - hand built too!

The Audion Quattro is the finest stock preamplifier ever made. Its phono stage can accommodate any low output moving coils, and its line-stage is just a cathode follower with very little gain. It has the benefits of both simplicity of design and superb execution (with only 4 tubes in the entire signal path from the cartridge, a 4 chassis totally dual-mono construction and the power supplies use only polypropylene capacitors). There are 17 active power supply stages in the 2 box and 21 active supplies in the 4 box.

We would recommend only two upgrades to this pre-amp, and upon Arthur Salvatore’s recommendation we would advise customers purchasing this to include Teflon V-caps and either Vishay Dale stepped attenuators or Goldpoint.

Audion Flux Professional Pre-Amps

Pre-Amp Upgrades

Although upgrading can be expensive, dramatic improvements can be made to the overall sound of a system. But where do you start? How far do you go? And which upgrades are the best to try first?
We have found that one of the biggest improvements is hard wiring. This is point-to-point wiring where each component is physically joined to the next using a PCB that has no tracks just pads, thus giving the absolute best possible path for the signals to travel down. Once this is achieved, you then need to upgrade the signal path wire or the components within it. For the components, the first to be introduced should be better capacitors, copper in oil, silver foil in oil or teflon capacitors. These capacitors are the best in the world and enhance the signal to noise ratio, lower the harmonic distortion, and sound better in almost every application. Next, I would opt for Tantalum resistors which are a very good start and offer a very low noise floor. Signal capacitors are a major consideration and can be very, very good depending on the type you wish to upgrade to. Pound for pound, the Copper Foils are an excellent solution and require at least 50 hours of burn-in time before they start to settle down and come into their own, but the difference they make can be dramatic. You should also look at the new breeds of Teflon caps available. Silver wire has the best qualities as far as conductors for audio are concerned, and can be an excellent upgrade. However, some audiophiles will argue that too much silver can make an amplifier sound a little bright, and actually prefer some copper to remain in circuit. My opinion here (having built a solid silver wired amp recently) is that if you have all silver in the amp then rather than being bright, what you actually hear is speed. As far as other upgrades are concerned silver plated plugs and sockets are fairly inexpensive, . Power supplies too are a good area to look at, the bigger is not necessarily the better, Blackgates are very good, but try removing the electrolytics and replacing with super grade polypropylenes.. The speed increase is dramatic.

At the end of the day upgrading can be a difficult decision, and a lot can depend on finances, but consider this; listening pleasure comes as standard with our products, so what you do there after can only make it better!

All factory upgraded products come with a certificate of conformity stating the upgrades carried out by us at our factory.

Note - we currently have a cage that can be retro-fitted to our amplifiers for customers who have young children, or are gererally worried about exposed valves. We also have newly acredited CE approval on some of our products and are working on the rest of our products in the near future. This is not effected by the absence of a cage due to current CE approval that we already have for some of our power amplifiers in the current chassis.

Options

1:).. Hard wiring
2:).. Change Cathode Bias capacitors to BlackGates Level 0
3:).. Change Cathode Bias capacitors to BlackGates Level 1
4:).. Change Power Supply capacitors to BlackGates
5:).. Change Signal capacitors to Copper foil in Oil
6:).. Change Signal capacitors to Teflon in Tin foil(V-cap)- Fantastic!!
7:).. Change Signal capacitors to Silver Foil in oil (Exotic)
8:).. Add Tantalum resistors in signal path
9:).Change volume Pot to Stepped Attenuator (3 Options - ALPS, Goldpoint or (Vishay Dale-My preffered)
10:).Add Silver Input sockets.
12:).Internally wire all signal path in 99.999% pure silver
13:).Internally rewire all other wiring in silver including earths.
14:). Change internal inter-connect from socket to attenuator

There are other options not listed here, you yourself may have ideas for upgrades that we haven’t even thought of, please do feel free to email or call and discuss any of these options with us.