Just Released! The Bellari VP549 is a Phono Preamp – Hand Built in the USA
We spent a considerable amount of time developing the VP549. Hundreds of hours went into listening and improving the design. We hope you enjoy using the VP549, and that it makes listening to your vinyl collection rewarding. We sincerely appreciate the opportunity to build a product for you and participate in your love of quality music. We love what we do and we’re happy to help.
All Bellari products are hand built in Salt Lake City, Utah by people who care about high quality music.
I pose the question, “if a phono preamp has to follow the RIAA curve (encode/decode), then why don’t they all sound similar?” To follow the RIAA equalization curve they have to reproduce the same frequencies at the proper amplitude or they simply do not follow the predetermined curve. OK, so why all the hype? Well, there could be several reasons, there are differences in types of parts. For instance, surface mount (SMT) parts are generally inferior to thru hole parts. If you look at the bank-account-draining preamps, they are constructed with a technology that has been around since the early 1970’s called “thru hole”. It is called thru hole because all parts are connected to the PCB via the part passing thru holes on the PCB to the other side, and then soldered in place on both sides of the PCB. Surface mount (SMT) technology is better for high speed digital than analog audio. Also, attention to good audio engineering principles helps lower noise.
At Bellari, we hand insert all of our parts in the highest grade double sided PCB’s.
OK, “So, why would I buy a VP549?” I hear you asking.
- Selective Cartridge loading is a feature rarely seen on affordable phono preamps, and it makes a difference.
- The ability to attenuate output level of the cartridge is a big deal if you need to adjust it and do not have the option to do so.
- No surface mount (SMT) parts are ever used at Bellari. We use all thru hole components.
- The VP549 was designed with true phase integrity. The audio signal is not out of phase in our circuit, this is a bigger deal than you might think.