Rothwell Rialto MM/MC Phonostage

FANTASTIC

Has a subtlety that allows it to compete with phono stages costing hundreds of £ more. Testing this against similar priced phono stages and it's dramatically better, fresher, more open, very low noise allows the subtle bits of the music to be heard. UK company too.

The exterior design of this unit somewhat belies its qualities. When it comes to sonic performance it subtly outscores much of its competition, meticulously identifying the details of the signal, presenting them in a uncolored way with a clear view of the stage. As usual, one should test it with acoustic music to get a relevant picture, but it has no problems with making the sounds of electrical and electronic music attractive and involving, even when they are quite complex.I use the Rialto together with an old Sony ta e90-es preamplifier, whose phono stage has a high reputation, but checking the two phono stages against each other in a subjective A-B test the final choice was with the Rialto connected to a line level input. And finally an advice that I didn't follow myself when I acquired it: Even if one uses a low level MC cartridge one might consider the somewhat cheaper Rothwell Simplex, whose MM stage shall be identical with Rialto’s, and combine it with a transformer.