At the already bygone High End Munich, the brand new Vertere Acoustics CALON high-end phono preamplifier was introduced.
If you are a true audiophile, cost plays a secondary role when it comes to achieving the best possible sound quality. Especially with vinyl playback, the weakest link in a chain breaks the final quality. In addition to a good turntable, cartridge and so on, a good phono preamplifier is indispensable. That could be, for example, the brand new Vertere Acoustics CALON.
According to Vertere, CALON is ‘designed to ensure that all the performance improvements made possible by recent improvements in Vertere turntables, particularly the new XtraX element, SG-II PTA HB and Reference tone arms, are retained. With less than ideal circuits, PCB layouts and power supplies can easily deliver good sound, but NOT great sound. CALON delivers truly great sound with amazing transparency and dynamics from Vertere”s latest turntables’.
Non-magnetic housing
The enclosure of the Vertere Acoustics CALON is made of non-magnetic (Austenitic) stainless steel, which should provide a high degree of shielding without the problems associated with iron or steel. In the latter case, think eddy current and field hysteresis.
Signal path
The phono input where the cartridge signal enters goes to a first amplifier stage with user-selectable gain (standard, 10dB, 20dB). This is followed by a RIAA circuit where, in what Vertere says is an ideal way, the HF section is passive and the LF is active. After this comes another user-selectable gain stage (0dB, 2dB, 4dB, 6dB, 8db) leading to the RCA outputs and balanced line driver stage.
Get rid of subsonic pollution
The Vertere Acoustics CALON includes a switchbar subsonic filter to block (subsonic) noise that you don’t hear (but does affect final sound quality) such as some turntable/arm/patterns generate in excess. This circuit is designed as linear phase and has a practically immeasurable effect above 20Hz. In addition, the output of CALON can be reversed 180° in phase for those rare records recorded/mastered with incorrect absolute phase.
MM and MC
Practically, the CALON can handle both Moving Magnet and Moving Coil cartridges. Front-panel knobs select from nine input impedances and nine capacitance options, along with 15 choices for gain. The power switch has three convenient options: Power off, Power on but output muted and Power on output on.
The Vertere Acoustics will be available starting next July at a cost of $1,8998.