2024 Golden Ear: Musical Surroundings Phonomena III Phono Preamp and Linear Power Supply

Phonomena III $1200, LPS $1000

The culmination of the several phonostages Mike Yee has been designing for Musical Surroundings since the late 90s, the Phonomena III now boasts parts, circuitry, and sonic performance superior to every previous version without deviating from the original’s two fundamental constants: one, the widest choice of loading options for moving-coil pickups and capacitance options for moving magnets, plus gain options for either; two, a sonic profile that places a high priority upon tonal neutrality. With 256 different choices for load and gain, there isn’t an mc or mm past or present that the III can’t ideally accommodate for the most neutral frequency response the pickup is capable of. Sonically, the III has a wider dynamic window, lower noise, greater headroom, gain, transparency, detail, and resolution. There’s also a new-found impression of roundedness, dimensionality, and density of tone and body. (Those critics who found previous versions insufficiently revealing of color—I’m not among them—should be happy.) Don’t let the relatively modest pricing fool you. In a market full of outboard phono preamps costing tens of thousands of dollars more, you won’t find another at any price that offers its range of flexibility to match any pickup out there with a commensurate level of technical and sonic performance. With excellent build-quality, parts, engineering, and reliability, it comes supplied with a wall wart power supply; the optional Linear Power Supply raises the performance in key areas (notably noise and dynamic range). Either way, it displaces previous versions as my current reference. (Forthcoming)