Фонокорректоры — European Audio Team (EAT) E-Glo 2

The E-Glo 2 is a two-box valve phono preamplifier made by European Audio Team, with its amplifier circuit in a slim aluminium housing and its mains supply in a second chassis of matching width. The signal path contains no semiconductors, and MM as well as MC cartridges are supported. Heat sinks on the case are styled to resemble reel-to-reel tape spools, and the unit comes in black or silver. British availability began in November 2024, priced at GBP 8,000.

Key specs that matter

Six valves do the amplification. Gain is 46 dB for moving magnet, while moving coil offers two settings of 70 dB and 76 dB. At the 70 dB setting the moving coil load can be chosen in eight steps of 10, 20, 40, 80, 150, 300, 600 and 1200 ohm, and a second set reaching down to 2 ohm goes with the 76 dB setting. Moving magnet input impedance is 47k ohm, with capacitance switchable from 50 to 840 pF. Distortion is specified at under 0.1 percent at 1 V RMS and RIAA accuracy within 0.3 dB from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Output impedance is under 150 ohm. The phono unit measures 395 x 86 x 262 mm and weighs 5.3 kg, and the supply box is 395 x 61 x 280 mm at 5.4 kg.

Engineering and use context

A fully balanced moving coil input stage is built around a Lundahl LL1932 step-up transformer whose core is amorphous, while the discrete moving magnet and moving coil circuits feed a split passive RIAA equalisation network rather than a feedback-based curve. Mundorf output capacitors and WIMA capacitors are used. A subsonic filter works at 20 Hz with a 12 dB per octave slope. The external supply has a custom toroidal transformer with two layers of shielding separating the primary and secondary windings for RFI rejection, is switchable between 230 V and 115 V at 50 or 60 Hz, and is rated at 52 VA, with standby draw below 0.5 W. All settings are reached through rows of switches on the front, so the case never has to be opened, and LED lighting behind the valve window can be dimmed and set to different colours. Stated noise figures are 74 dBV for both input types, or 95 dBV IEC A weighted for moving magnet and 85 dBV for moving coil.

Pairing

A moving magnet cartridge connects over RCA, while a moving coil model can use either RCA or balanced XLR. The only output is a stereo RCA pair, so the E-Glo 2 connects to any line level socket of the following amplification, and its low source impedance suits ordinary interconnect runs.

Alternatives

The EAT E-Glo FB is a fully balanced and fully discrete valve phono stage from the same maker that also carries a moving coil step-up transformer.