Spring cleaning

I don’t like being pigeonholed as a reviewer of exclusively expensive audio components—because I’m not, as anyone who regularly peruses Analog Planet knows. So, to ease the pain of reviewing the half-million-dollar Air Force Zero turntable—you’ll find that review on p.53 of this issue—I figured I’d cover some more reasonably priced analog gear here in Analog Corner.

Plus, I need to do some spring cleaning and tidy up a few loose reviewing ends: Only products reviewed in Stereophile qualify for the Recommended Components list, so when I review something at Analog Planet that I think should be on that list, I need to cover it here, too.

Take, for instance, QHW Audio’s The Vinyl MM/MC phono preamp. (QHW stands for “Quality Hi-Fi Works.”) See my full review at Analog Planet.¹ This exceptionally fine-sounding phono preamplifier currently sells for just $786.96 including shipping to America, from Spain, where it’s designed and manufactured by Francisco Vizcaya Lopez, a music professor, concert performer, and composer with engineering skill sufficient to allow him to design this exceptionally fine-sounding phono preamp and several other hi-fi products.

When I reviewed it last April, the cost was even lower, at $644.83. The price fluctuates because Mr. Vizcaya Lopez pegs the price to currency fluctuations—exchange rates—instead of building in a price cushion. It’s a more consumer-friendly approach.

The MM input uses a QHW-developed AE2270 op-amp, not an off-the-shelf one. The MC input, which has gain that’s switchable in steps between 63 and 69dB via rear-panel DIP switches, utilizes discrete bipolar transistors. The specifications are impressive, as is the sound—and as is a smart design that allows you to simultaneously connect two turntables and independently configure an MM and an MC cartridge. By using the outboard step-up transformer (SUT) of your choice