CHANNEL D SETA L PHONO PREAMPLIFIER & PURE VINYL 5

Ever since I stopped using my Audio Research SP10 preamplifier in the early 1990s—its eight phono-stage tubes used to get too noisy too quickly—I tried a variety of standalone phono preamplifiers. Seeing the most service through the 1990s and 2000s were, first, a Mod Squad Phono Drive EPS, then a Linn Linto, both of which I purchased. But when I measured Channel D’s Seta Model L, which Michael Fremer reviewed in the August 2010 issue,¹ the Linto was pushed to one side. The battery-powered Seta L² had the lowest noise and distortion I had encountered in a phono preamplifier, and I eventually bought the sample I had been sent for a follow-up review in 2013.³

The beautifully built Seta Model L ($3799) is intended for use with lowoutput moving-coil cartridges. It has balanced and single-ended inputs (the RCA jacks are connected in parallel with pins 2 and 3 of the XLR jacks); Flat (unequalized) balanced outputs; optional RIAA-equalized balanced and single-ended outputs ($1199); adjustable loading; a switchable, 10Hz high-pass filter (Channel D recommends leaving this filter enabled); and four gain settings (43, 46, 49, and 53dB). A balance trim control allows the gain for one channel to be set up to 2dB higher than the gain for the other to cope