Review on 🔊 Bellari PA550 Preamp by Deana Schiernbeck

After a bit of a rocky start which the guys at bellari easily solved I have used this unit as a phono stage on my U Turn Orbit turntable with very nice results. My turntable had a built in preamp which worked fine but was a bit quiet for my system. After looking at several options, this one seemed to have everything I was looking for at a reasonable price. It had a volume control and looked good. The first thing that struck me was the build quality. It is very durable and very beautiful in my opinion. Reminds me of an American product from the 1950s. Everything made of thick sheet metal. The handles also appear to be of high quality, as they turn very smoothly and are very pleasant to the touch. The sound quality is generally very good. I'm not an audiophile and my system isn't very high end, but I like the way it sounds. It might be a bit harsh at high frequencies compared to the old Pluto onboard preamp, but I hardly notice it if I'm using headphones and listening closely. Everything else is just better. The bass already sounds fuller and deeper at 0 and can get very loud. Now I use the volume control a little over half and it's a lot louder than my old preamp without any distortion. The noise level is even quieter as there is no hiss at high volumes like my previous preamp, even at full volume. You have to ground it to make it so quiet. Uturn says components connected to their turntables do not need to be grounded, but I don't think that's true. At first I used the pa550 without a ground wire and there was a slight hiss which completely disappeared after grounding. For the price this is a great preamp. It's not on par with my friend Nakamishi's ca 5, but it's a thousand dollar component. Now I enjoy my records much more.