Фонокорректоры — ModWright Instruments PH 9.0

The ModWright PH 9.0 is a vacuum tube phono stage from ModWright Instruments with separate moving magnet and moving coil inputs, Lundahl MC step-up transformers and an external power supply on a long umbilical. The maker describes it as physically compact and flexible, and it sits as the base version of a family that also includes the PH 9.0X and PH 9.0XT.

Key specs that matter

Maximum gain is 64 dB for moving coil and 52 dB for moving magnet, and a gain adjust control lowers each by 6 or 12 dB, giving 58 or 52 dB for MC and 46 or 40 dB for MM. For moving coil cartridges the load options are 10, 20, 50, 100, 250 or 470 ohm, while the moving magnet input is fixed at 47 kohm. Frequency response is 20 Hz to 50 kHz within plus or minus 0.2 dB. The tube complement is two 6C45 and two 6922, which can also be 6DJ8 or 7308 types. The main chassis measures 254 mm wide, 254 mm deep and 102 mm high, and the supply box is 178 x 229 x 76 mm, connected by a 1.8 m umbilical with a 4-pin XLR plug.

Engineering and use context

In the base model the external supply is solid-state rectified. The front panel carries MM, Mute and MC input selection, the loading selector and the gain control, and the MC load is adjustable during playback without powering down. A rear toggle switches between mono and stereo, which is useful for mono pressings. Standard outputs are single-ended RCA, and transformer-coupled balanced XLR outputs are an extra-cost option. The PH 9.0X upgrade adds Lundahl 1660S gapped output transformers and removes chokes and coupling capacitors from the signal path, while the T versions add a tube rectified supply with a high-voltage pre-regulator stage. Because the 6922 family has many new old stock variants, owners can try different tubes, and the 6C45 input tubes are a high transconductance type chosen for low noise front ends. ModWright offers a 14-day money-back guarantee on PH 9.0 sales.

Pairing

The wide gain range allows low output moving coil cartridges and higher output moving magnet types to be used without extra step-up devices. With the RCA outputs as standard, a line stage with single-ended inputs is the simplest match, and anyone running a balanced preamplifier would specify the XLR option. The separate supply box can be placed away from the main unit and the turntable to keep transformer hum at a distance.

Alternatives

The ModWright PH 150 is the brand's reference tube phono stage, with up to 72 dB of MC gain and both single-ended and balanced outputs.