Translations:

Graham Slee has been producing award winning Phono Stages for Vinyl enthusiasts as well as high quality headphone amplifiers for a number of years now. Recently he released the highly innovative Revelation Phono Stage. What follows is a description of the unique advantages of the Revelation over just about any other Phono stage ever produced.

When the grooves are engraved into an LP record, the bass levels are deliberately reduced and the treble levels increased. This is because for a given sound level the bass frequencies would otherwise need a larger groove which would reduce the recording time and make it harder for the cartridge to track. When a record is played back the contact between the stylus and the record groove creates a high frequency noise. By deliberately boosting the high frequencies when a record is cut, the high frequency noise of the stylus groove contact can be reduced when the record is played back.

The specific amount of reduction in bass frequencies and boosting of treble frequencies describes a curve through the frequency spectrum. The RIAA (recording industry of America) established a standard curve for recording and playback of vinyl records, which was supposed to be adopted by all record labels since 1954. Before then each record company adopted their own curves.

In order to play back a vinyl record you need a phono pre-amplifier which has to apply equalization based on the curve, so that the reduced bass levels on the record are brought back up to their correct levels and the boosted high frequencies are reduced to their correct levels.

Just about every phono preamplifier produced since 1954 applies this equalization based on the RIAA curve.

In reality, however, many of the record companies continued to apply their own curves with different reductions in bass frequencies and boosts in the treble, well into the 1960′s. Records cut using one of these alternative curves will not be played back correctly by a standard phono preamplifier which applies the RIAA curve. If you have LP records recorded in the 50′s and early 60′s and have found the sound disappointing, e.g. muddy and lacking life, this may be the reason.

Fortunately Graham Slee has come to the rescue with his Revelation Phono stage, which enables you to apply different equalization curves than the standard RIAA curve.

A series of toggle switches allows you to easily apply different equalization curves and a guide is provided which indicates which curve is likely to be correct for different record labels. The guide should be used as a starting point as it can never be ascertained with 100% accuracy as to which curve was applied when a particular disk was cut. The best method is to experiment with different curves and judge for yourself which curve sounds best to you on the record concerned. You could then make a note on the record sleeve as to which curve to apply each time you play that record in the future.

The results of correct equalization will truly be a revelation to you.

At Sound Galleries we have the Revelation available for audition together with the Elevator Moving Coil Step-up transformer. Both are supplied with the separate PSU1-24 power supplies.

We can, of course, also order any of Graham’s excellent products for you, including his new Voyager portable headphone amp, for greatly improving the quality of audio on the move, from portable devices such as iPods and Laptop computers. Visit Graham Slee