The GCPH is built around the same design philosophy all PS phono preamplifiers have enjoyed over the last 30 years: a passive RIAA curve and fully discrete class A gain stages. It is our finest work to date and should again set the standard for standalone phono amplification for many years to come.
We’ve also managed to make some serious improvements to our original design techniques in the GCPH, by adding a dual mono, balanced signal path and dual mono power supplies. Separating the signal paths and the power supplies into, essentially, mono paths adds a wonderful level of separation in the audio chain and helps lower the noise to nearly imperceptible levels. This is truly a state-of-the-art phono preamplifier that can be used as an add on to your preamplifier or all by itself feeding your power amplifier directly!
Customer review
I just thought I’d write to tell you about my thoughts on the GCPH. To put it bluntly, I am absolutely blown away. After connecting the unit I put on a record for testing and a smile immediately crossed my face. I sat down, turned out the lights and ended up playing records for the rest of the night in my work clothes - sporting a grin the entire time. I’m hearing sounds I didn’t know existed in some songs, and the clarity can almost be distracting at times with the sound of fingers running up and down guitar strings now a regular part of the listening experience. I know it’s a cliché in the audio world to say “the veil has been lifted off my system” but I can think of no better way to describe the effect. It wasn’t a subtle improvement so much as an alleluia moment. Feel for my neighbours. Even my girlfriend who makes do with an integrated iPod dock/speaker at home commented that it “sounds live” and that it’s a “beautiful sound”. It’s possible that not all the improvements are attributable to the GCPH as during the installation I also removed an “audiophile grade” passive control switch from my setup. The passive control rig used to feed the power amp directly, now the GCPH does as made possible by the inclusion of a gain control knob on the front of the unit. My old phono stage was a $540.00 UK designed Creek unit which may not the most expensive unit out there couldn’t be described as low grade. Feeding the power amp with the Creek via a passive control unit (containing not much more than an input switch and a high quality volume attenuator) would probably be considered by some, including myself, a pretty clean setup, therefore it was a quiet a surprise to experience the improvements I’m currently enjoying. As my system is Vinyl only at the moment I may be talking to you about a PSAudio pre-amp or the like which will allow me connect my CD player, but the need isn’t urgent – especially as my system is in a sweet spot right now I will be considering any changes very carefully.
Thanks again!
A happy GCPH owner!
Features
- Moving Coil
- Moving Magnet
- Front panel gain adjust
- Remote control volume
- Mono
- Stereo
- Dual mono signal path
- Balanced input to output
- Phase reversal
- Passive RIAA Curve
- RIAA accuracy better than 1/10th dB
- Impedance matching
- Huge power supply
- Gain Cell technology
- Built in subsonic filter
Benefits
- Accurate and musical
- Low noise
- Balanced input to output
- Match your cartridge to the gain
- Use as a standalone phono preamp
- Direct into a power amp or preamp
