Inside of the M2TECH Nash phono (MC stage) preamplifier. M2TECH writes: “A phono preamplifier is a delicate thing when it comes to noise. An MC pre-preamplifier is even more delicate and sensitive to noise, therefore special care must be dedicated to its design if we want the tiny signal out of an MC cartridge to come out in all its glory.”
“The Nash uses a solid-state, FET-input MC design. It features a two-stages circuit with a ultra-low noise input differential stage made with several low-noise FETs in parallel (lower side of the picture). Its noise performance is stellar, even at the highest gain (30dB).
Of course, even the finest design will not perform at its best if a poor, noisy supply is applied. Therefore, we designed a special, dual ultra-low noise regulator to power the MC pre-preamp only (upper side of the picture). It’s almost totally discrete components, the only IC being a dual op-amp used as error amplifier. It’s noise performance is better than that of a good Lithium-Ion battery.
With such a design, we obtained incredible performance by Nash’s MC input.
Two pots allow for setting the MC pre-preamp gain between 3dB and 30dB and its input impedance between 10 Ohms and 1000 Ohms.”