September 2019


Best Of 2019 Blue Note Equipment Awards

M2Tech Nash Phono Pre & Van Der Graaf MkII Power Supply
Price: $1599 and $1299 respectively
Click here to read the complete review.

  These Italian phono preamp components aren't entry-level, I would place them more in the "affordable" category. But they great performers. When using a phono preamp I all I want is one thing – quiet amplification of my phono cartridge. What divides the great phono preamps from the greater phono preamps is the quality of the signal of that amplification.

Marco Manunta, the designer of the Nash phono stage, told me that in the past he has designed many phono stages, but this is the first he designed for M2Tech, and is also the first phono preamplifier that M2Tech has ever offered. When designing the Nash, one of Marco's main goals was to make this phono preamp have vanishing low noise, which in his mind also meant that it would have a very high-resolution. But he also wanted to this phono stage to have a high enough output voltage to match the outputs of the digital sources in most audiophile's systems.

The high output level of the Nash phono stage is obtained because it offers the option to select between some very high gain settings in both its moving magnet (MM) and moving coil (MC) stages – up to 65dB for MM and up to 30dB more for the MC input, leading to a total 95dB for MC. M2Tech's Nash phono is a FET-input, fully discrete component with very low noise, yet it has a very high output of 2.5 Vms. To keep the noise level as low as possible, M2Tech uses several low-noise FETs in parallel in each of its discrete component stages inputs: 8+8 in the MC and the first MM stage, 2+2 in the second MM stage. They also use low noise voltage regulators for the two MM gain stages, plus a proprietary, discrete components in the ultra-low noise dual regulator for the MC stage.

When a phono preamp gives me a transparent signal, that is, a signal that is as close to the signal that the phono cartridge is receiving, and I'm able to pass that signal on thanks to a transparent phono stage, I'm happy. The M2Tech Nash Phono Preamplifier is able to do that. When adding the Der Graaf Mk II Power Supply it does it even better.

And when one adds the $1299 Van Der Graaf MkII power supply it may not just about double the level of its performance. I'm afraid it doesn't work that way. But it sure raises the sonic bar, and I doubt one will find a better sounding phono stage at this price.

Click here to read the complete review.

Previous Annual Blue Note Awards

Product of the Year Awards 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, and 2001.