PH-5 Phono Stage

The high-quality of Gold Note’s phono stages has become affordable

The PH-5 is the latest born at Gold Note’s range of phono stages, designed to deliver the same high quality and excellent performance that made the PH-10 and PH-1000 famous, with an affordable price and all the cutting-edge features that stands out our products. With a single RCA input, it can be connected to either MM or MC cartridges and offers an EQ curves selection (RIAA, Decca London and American Columbia, with Enhanced option), as well as the LOAD’s and GAIN’s adjustments to guarantee the utmost flexibility and versatility, making it perfect for every kind of analogue system.

The PH-5 is the first Gold Note product designed with a touchscreen interface: all the settings are easily accessible and changeable thanks to the innovative and unparalleled user-friendly display that allows you to select and manage all the options in real time while playing your music. The phono stage is based on a completely new design to integrate the whole electronics into a single board.

The digital interface is combined with a full analogue heart: indeed, the signal path is made through discrete audio-grade components and sealed single switches and it’s optimized to shorten the distance and minimize possible interference. Every setting selected through the touchscreen is applied to the audio signal switching its path through the usage of relé. The PH-5 features an “analogue purity” able to deliver superior audio quality and extract even the finest details from the vinyl record.

The PH-5 allows a selection of the most appropriate equalization curve for each vinyl record, directly on the touch display: RIAA, DECCA LONDON, and AMERICAN COLUMBIA. Thanks to our proprietary technology inspired by Georg Neumann (the producer of the famous Neumann Disc Cutting Lathe), each curve can be “Enhanced” to extend the frequency response up to 50kHz, improving even further the stage, dynamics, and resolution when required.

To maximize the performance of the PH-5, Gold Note also developed a dedicated, external super inductive power supply that allows the phono stage to achieve its fullest potential, reaching an even higher degree of musical realism, better dynamics, and greater three-dimensionality sound.

• EQUALISATION CURVE CONTROL:  3 EQ curves (RIAA, Decca London, American Columbia) all with Enhanced option
• INFRASONIC FILTER:  10Hz/36dB octave
• FREQUENCY RESPONSE:  20Hz /20kHz [Enhanced 20Hz-50kHz] @ +/-0.3dB
• THD (Total Harmonic Distortion):  <0.05% @1kHz
• SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO:  89dB
• DYNAMIC RESPONSE:  105dB
• ANALOGUE INPUT:  1x RCA stereo MM/MC
• INPUT SENSITIVITY:  0.1mV MC up to 10.0mV MM
• INPUT IMPEDANCE:  9 options [10Ω, 22Ω, 47Ω, 100Ω, 220Ω, 470Ω, 1000Ω, 22kΩ, 47kΩ]
• GAIN:  MM= 40dB, MC= 60dB, with 4 options [0dB, + 3dB, ± 6dB]
• CAPACITANCE (MM ONLY):  220pF
• AUDIO OUTPUTS:  1x unbalanced RCA, 1x balanced XLR
• OUTPUT IMPEDANCE:  50Ω
• POWER CONSUMPTION:  10W
• STANDBY CONSUMPTION:  < 0,5W
• POWER SUPPLY:  100-120V or 220-240V, 50/60Hz
• FUSE:  2A T
• DIMENSIONS:  200W | 80H | 260D mm |  290W | 180H | 390D mm – boxed
• WEIGHT:  Kg. 1.2 – net (2.64 lbs), Kg. 2.2 – boxed (4.84 lbs)
• FINISH:  Black varnished steel and aluminium

The external inductive power supply dedicated to the PH-5

The PSU-5 is the external power supply dedicated to the PH-5 phono stage, it’s the perfect upgrade to enhance the performance of the Gold Note analogue system and deliver flawless vinyl reproduction.

It’s inspired by the same philosophy behind Gold Note's series of external PSUs, such as the PSU-10 and PSU-1000. The design leverages a linear power supply with dedicated transformers, custom-made in Italy to specs, to provide high-quality power with consistency. In addition to that, it features an inductive filter to prevent noise and interference from the AC power grid.

The PSU-5 features a 2-transformer circuit for the linear power supply stage in order to effectively provide the best working condition to the PH-5, with plenty of ultra-clean power.  This allows the PSU-5 to prevent noise from the AC, which is also further removed by the dual-choke inductive filter developed with a dedicated transformer completely shielding the PH-5. The large and ultra-clean power generated also enables greater dynamic and finer audio details guaranteeing the best realism and stage reconstruction.