$65 Nobsound Vacuum Tube Phono Pre-Amp, Is it any good?

If you have every setup a turntable, you are probably aware of the fact that to use a turntable you need a pre amplifier of some sort. Back in the day, every receiver on the market had a built in phono pre-amp, and the built in ones were usually very good, nowadays most receivers are intended for home theater use, so you don't really see built in phono stages anymore on receivers. Most modern turntables have made up for this by including built in phono pre-amps, but these leave more than a little to be desired, depending on what model turntable you have, some are good, and some are bad. So how good is a $65 external tube pre-amp? Let's find out!

The Nobsound T7 Little Bear Phono Stage currently retails on Amazon for $65, and is available in black and silver. The little bear has an rca stereo input and output, as well as a 3.5mm digital input for connecting a cd player or auxiliary. The Little Bear includes a switch to change the amount of gain as well as a ground input, so that you can ground your turntable.

When I first setup the Little Bear and went to hook up my turntable, I was annoyed to find out that the Little Bear uses a rather out of the ordinary ground input, which made it pretty difficult to ground my turntable properly. This meant that with the Little Bear hooked up, there is always a little bit of low frequency hum, it isn't really noticeable when listening to music, but it kind of bothers me, because every now and then in quiet bits of music, I can hear it, and it really takes me out of the music. Another gripe that I have with this little phono stage is that the build quality isn't that greatest, although the case is all made out of aluminum, the gain button and auxiliary jack feel loose, and not quite in place. Aside from those two gripes, when I first put on a record, I instantly noticed both added clarity, and added warmth over the built in phono stage that I had been using before. This phono stage really can improve your vinyl sound, it makes your system and little warmer sounding, and can add a some extra detail to your records. Although this is marketed as a tube pre-amp, it is not 100% vacuum tube, there is some solid state amplification happening, and this is only a pre-amplifier, so don't expect radical changes, but for what it is, the Little Bear does deliver very good sound, for only $65. If you are looking to improve you vinyl setup a little bit, you may want to consider the Nobsound T7 Little Bear Phono Stage.