PS Audio Stellar Phono phono preamplifier
We usually save the question of value for the end of a review, but this time it’s worth mentioning up front, if only because PS Audio has been in the news lately. Late last August, the company announced they were switching from a traditional dealer network to a factory-direct sales model. So, to some readers, it might seem fair to judge the brand-new, full-featured Stellar Phono Preamplifier ($2500) against ones selling in stores for $5000.
Then again, to speak with the Stellar Phono’s talented designer, 30-something engineer and vinyl enthusiast Darren Myers, is to know that this is a product that will stand or fall on its own merits, regardless of price.
The Stellar Phono, designed and assembled in Boulder, Colorado, using globally sourced parts, is an attractive and unique-looking piece, available in both black and matte silver finishes with a curved/split front surface and a switch- free fascia. Any way you look at it, from any angle, the understated and entirely bling-free Stellar is a damn handsome, even fashionable piece of hi-fi. At 21.6lb, it’s also relatively heavy—and from the looks of its sleek outer skin, the weight of the approximately 17″ × 13″ × 3″ Stellar is mostly in its componentry, not its casework.
Apart from its rear-mounted master power switch, a pair of rear-mounted potentiometers for dialing in custom resistive loads, and its front-panel logo—I’ll come back to that last one in a moment—the Stellar Phono is operated entirely from its remote handset; a series of LEDs on the front panel alerts you to the selected operating status. The handset is encased in plastic and non-illuminated, but ergonomics are good, and it’s easy to use.
From the handset you can turn the Stellar Phono on and off, select MM or MC inputs—there’s one pair of each—toggle through various gain settings (44dB, 50dB, and 56dB for MM cartridges, 60dB, 66dB, and 72dB for MC), and select between buttons for four preset loads—60 ohms, 100 ohms, 200 ohms, or 47k ohms—or a button that enables the above- mentioned custom-setting knobs, which range from 1 ohm to 1k ohms. There’s also a Mute button that, when pressed, illuminates a red LED on the left side of the Stellar’s front panel; the rest of the indicator lights are blue. The identifying labels next to the latter aren’t illuminated, and the bright LEDs overwhelm the text, but it doesn’t really matter because those LEDs are logically grouped, their meanings easy to remember.
Around back are rear-panel–mounted, gold-plated MM and MC inputs (RCA), the latter separated by the custom loading knobs. There’s also one pair each of balanced (XLR) and single-ended (gold-plated RCA) jacks. A ground lug located between the MM and MC inputs is of the useful banana jack/threaded-screw type.
Circuit details
In the manual, designer Myers both describes the design and makes some bold claims. He writes, “It is inconvenient . . . to realize that measurements don’t always correlate with what we hear. Some of the most commonly used circuit topologies suffer from what I call overexposed sound—the edge transients lead with far too much high-frequency energy and the overall tonality has a grey sheen that washes out the tonal contrast. Many have claimed that this is what happens when a circuit is transparent and has low distortion. I beg to differ.”
That design philosophy led Myers to implement a fully discrete circuit that doesn’t rely upon high amounts of global feedback to lower distortion or increase bandwidth. “To the contrary,” he writes, “[the circuits] were designed to be innately transparent and present the music with a correct display of tonal balance.”
To that end, Myers designed a circuit that is “DC-coupled from input to output and doesn’t contain any complementary circuits.” The short signal path utilizes class-A–biased MOSFETs and JFETs. MC and MM inputs feature paralleled Toshiba JFETs, which are directly coupled to low-feedback, high-bandwidth discrete amplifiers. Each fully class-A output stage uses a single MOSFET output device; Myers says this approach produces “subjectively innocuous distortion products compared to complementary designs.” The passive RIAA EQ implementation uses Wilson Audio Specialties–manufactured REL film and foil capacitors.
The designer concludes by claiming, in the manual, “I ended up with a phono preamp that always presents the music in the correct light.” Of course, that’s what they all say! At least those who say anything like that.
Setup and use
The well-written, informative instruction manual makes several important points, including the suggestion that, if the choice is between a long AC power cord or long interconnects, go for the long, well-shielded power cord. The instructions aren’t afraid to claim “significant performance improvements” with the use of high-quality aftermarket power cords. In my view, anyone unwilling to try such a cord because they “just know” it can’t possibly make a differ- ence deserves the degraded sonic performance they will get.
Upon powering up, the front-panel PS Audio logo lights up and the unit loads the default settings: “mute,” “MM” and “47k ohms.” Pressing either the PS Audio logo or the remote’s On/Off button extinguishes the logo LEDs and puts the unit into “idle mode,” which retains all of your settings and deactivates the output relays. Holding down the PS Audio logo button for more than 3 seconds will activate or deactivate the “mute” function. You can still play music even if you lose the remote! This is an extremely well- thought-out operating system, making the feature-packed Stellar a most pleasant and configurable phono preamp. At this price point, you usually get either little adjustability or the dreaded adjustment-by-DIP-switch torture. One boldface caution in the manual: “Activate idle mode before powering down your unit using the rear panel master power switch.” It doesn’t say why, but I assume it’s to avoid a nasty “thump” through the speakers.
The instructions also offer useful load- and gain-setting guidance and advice on what to do if you hear whining, beeping, humming, buzzing, whistling, or any other kind of noising.
Darren Myers and PS Audio’s Bill Leebens delivered and installed the Stellar. I think they wanted to hear how a $2500 phono preamp would perform when driven by a $200,000 front end, itself driving a bigger rig than would most likely be used by most Stellar purchasers.
Tell me something I don’t already know
At the 2019 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, I got a preview listen to the Stellar phono preamp in the PS Audio room. The turntable there was VPI’s new HW-40 direct-drive model, combined with a VPI Fatboy tonearm ($15,000 together), on which was mounted a low-output MC cartridge. (It might have been an Ortofon A95—I forget.) The rest of the system was (of course) PS Audio electronics driving PS Audio loudspeakers. Though I was unfamiliar with much of the system, I felt by the end of the show that I could probably write the review then and there. (That’s a game I often play at shows listening through unfamiliar systems to gear I’m about to review at home.)
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COMPANY INFO
PS Audio
4865 Sterling Drive
Boulder, CO, 80301
psaudio.com
ARTICLE CONTENTS
Page 1
Page 2
Specifications
Associated Equipment
Measurements
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