New Statement Phono Stage From Boulder
oulder's handsome new 2108 ($52,000) is a solid-state phono stage that touts "vast improvements . . . in sound quality through the use of better ground paths and planes, revised circuit topology, and lowering of the static noise floor." The 2108 separates the audio and control functions from the power supply and standby circuitry by housing them in separate chassis, in order to prevent hum or noise from the power supply from interfering with the audio circuits, a feature that is especially relevant, given the high gain of a phono stage. Extensive damping and shielding of the main power transformers further ensures that noise from the transformers doesn't affect the audio circuits. The 2108 uses Boulder's 995 gain stage for significantly reduced distortion and noise. The 2108 is also fully balanced and dual mono in design, for better noise rejection and channel isolation. The 2108 has three inputs and two sets of outputs. Each input is independently configurable via Boulder's Personality Cards, which ensure that the minute analog signal never goes through a switch or relay. An additional feature is multiple EQ curves, which allows choice of standard RIAA along with London FFRR, Columbia, and EMI curves for playback of LPs released prior to 1954. Overall gain is 70 or 60dB for moving-coil cartridges, and 50 or 40dB for moving-magnet cartridges or for use with an external MC step-up transformer. Other features include a low-pass filter with multiple
high-pass cutoff points and a mono switch. Both are implemented via a quiet logic system
to, once again, eliminate a potential source of noise. |
