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Parks Audio's Puffin Phono DSP: An Ideal Preamp for Enhanced Vinyl System Sound Review

4

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Very good

Revainrating 4 out of 5  
Rating 
4.1
🍿 Home Theater, 🎵 Home Audio

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Description of Parks Audio's Puffin Phono DSP: An Ideal Preamp for Enhanced Vinyl System Sound

MAGIC lessens records pops and clicks making your LPs sound better than ever. Grade your records with the grading function. Sort dupes or determine candidates for replacement. Latest Firmware V1.30 **** Twenty gain settings from -4dB (CDs) to 72dB (MCs). Warmth tone controls for fast, easy sound adjustment - also Adjust Bass, Treble, Air, and 4th order HPF & LPFs. New Azimuth setup, Easy menu, Sweep and RPM test.

Reviews

Global ratings 4
  • 5
    2
  • 4
    1
  • 3
    0
  • 2
    1
  • 1
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Type of review

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Sounds great and is incredibly flexible. Exactly what I needed. 5 Star+

I bought this because I was trying a few other preamps that didn't do what I needed (Schiit Mani and ART DJ). I use a passive preamp (Shi'it Saga in Shi'it Vidar) and have not been able to get a reasonable level from other phono stages without clipping. I can now get a good level with the DSP by cranking the puffin volume up and dialing in whatever gain I want. The recommended setting for my Sumiko Moonstone is 44dB, but now I can crank it up to 48dB or 52dB or more without distortion…

Pros
  • Receiver & Amplifier
Cons
  • Out of Fashion

Revainrating 2 out of 5

Total flexibility and ease of use

I hooked up my Puffin and listened to various headphones and the ProAc tablet 10. Puffin makes it easy to adjust gain, volume, bass, treble, tilt and air (among other settings) so you can listen to your turntable with different types of headphones (I have Sennheiser, HiFiMAN, Audio Technica, Koss and ESS). with an impedance of 32-300 ohms and various sensitivities, and you no longer have to open headphone amplifiers and adjust the gain settings to optimize the volume range for each headphone…

Pros
  • Electronics
Cons
  • Expensive

Revainrating 4 out of 5

As a pure phono preamp it lacks

I really hate to be a sign of controversy but as a phono preamp the Puffin just doesn't sound good. I bought this device with very high expectations based on very glowing reviews. Unfortunately, as a preamp aside, it produces a recessed, narrow soundstage, transient response is slow with soft leading edges, and extreme micro detail is hard to discern. I compared it to the cheaper Emotiva XPS-1 and the similarly priced ProJect Tube Box DS (using Tung Sol Gold pin tubes in EAT shocks)…

Pros
  • preamp
Cons
  • There are downsides

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Pig ear silk

Here's something about my dead end: It's for weak records. You know you like the album about 70% of your collection, but you know that the actual record you bought could be deeper and punchier, either because of the mastering or because of "weaker grooves" that you might find in a find another copy . Or that 180 gram "audiophile" record you got from your favorite band, recorded and released digitally to make more money off the trend. If you're worried about the Aja fading, save your tube amp…

Pros
  • Home theater
Cons
  • Doubt