Triangle Art P-200 Tube Phono

The P-200 is a full function stand alone vacuum tube phono preamplifier employing our implementation of truly classic and time proven circuit configurations. Simple and elegant topologies and powering schemes that have been used successfully since the “golden age” of Hi Fi. Triangle Art has methodically gone through all aspects of the design of this vacuum tube preamplifier and applied it’s own “magic touch” and long time audio engineering experience to everything from mechanical layout, heavy duty chassis design, use of an external power supply and careful and meticulous selection of the finest electronic components and wiring and a printed circuit board using a symmetrical signal flow layout.

Features:

The P-200 offers a total of 3 phono cartridge inputs, one standard moving magnet (MM) or standard level input and two moving coil (MC) or low level inputs. The inputs are selected via front panel switches which select either the MM input or, if set to MC, one of the two MC inputs.

MC input one and two differ only the connector format, MC being a standard RCA input while MC 2 is available on a female XLR connector when this type of interconnect is preferred

The output signal is available on two separate connector types, RCA and XLR.

The power transformer of the P-200 is housed in a separate chassis and connects to the main unit via and umbilical cord and multi pin connectors on both chassis.

Power indication is by a blue LED built into the power switch on the front panel of the preamplifier chassis.

Technical details:

The preamplifier uses two identical low noise triode gain stages with passive RIAA equalization between these two stages. The passive RIAA network offers very accurate equalization, deviation from the RIAA curve is less than 0.5 dB. Since equalization is passive there is never a variance in response with tube changes, as can be the case with active EQ when gain margins are insufficient.

Total gain is 45 dB for MM and an additional 26 dB of gain are provided via a high quality step up transformer when the MC input is selected. Input impedance is standard
47 k Ohms and 150pF for the MM input and approximately 100 Ohms for the MC input. Most MC cartridges will work with the P-200 as delivered, however if specific loading, resistive for MC or capacitive for MM, the factory can provide assistance.

All 3 twin triodes in the P-200 are shared between the left and the right channel. This allows greater flexibility when selecting tubes for personal taste preferences in sonics. If for example a user locates one special tube, vintage or otherwise, but only one, this can be installed in the preferred position of the circuit board to full benefit. Not sharing triode sections would require finding 2 identical tubes.

The output is buffered and is capable of driving virtually any standard interconnect.

The power supply is passive, both the high voltage supply and the filament supply. This is a design choice. Both supplies are very heavily filtered and the high voltage supply has additional limiting and stabilization built in to prevent turn on surges from placing unnecessary stress on the triodes, but is effectively passive. High quality electronic components are used through out the circuit such as Mundorf capacitors and resistors by AMRG. All signal wiring is silver.

Description

• Specifications:
• Outputs:   1 RCA , 1 XLR.
• Input:       2 MC. 1 RCA , 1 XLR and 1 RCA for MM
• Input impedance:      MM = 47k Ohm / 150 pF, MC = 100 Ohm (Adjustable)
• Output impedance:   < 500 Ohms Lowest recommended load impedance > 10 kOhm
• Gain:                        MM = 45 dB, MC= 71 dB @ 1 kHz
• Distortion (THD_N):    0.01% typical, 1 kHz @ 0 dBV (1V rms) out
• IMD:                0.01 % typical, 60 Hz and 7 kHz 4:1 @ -3dBV (.7V rms)  out
• Maximum output:    18 dBV (8.5 Vrms) into lowest recommended load of 10 kOhms @ 1% THD+N
•                                     Levels are higher into greater loads.
• Maximum MM input:    > -21.4 dBV (85 mV rms) @ 1 % THD
• Crosstalk:                    < -60 dB @ I kHz.
• Noise:                          < -70 dB 20 Hz to 20 kHz relative to 0 dBV out
•                                     < -85 dB A-Weighted relative to 0 dBv out.