Musical Fidelity X-LPS Phonostage

High quality but affordable phono stage. The X-LPS is switchable between moving magnet and moving coil settings and so will work with the vast majority of phono cartridges. This one is in great condition, and comes with our regular three month warranty. In actual fact What Hi-Fi? magazine said in 2018 and I quote: “If you find a second-hand X-LP for a good price, don’t hesitate to take the plunge. You won’t regret it.”
Musical Fidelity Say….
The new X-LPS MC/MM phono stage is significantly better than the original X-LP, which it is replacing. Over the last three years, the original X-LP has become something of an industry standard. It offered excellent sound, fabulous build quality, reliability, and value for money. The X-LPS has been improved in all these areas.
At the heart of the X-LPS is Musical Fidelity’s custom-made integrated circuit, the SSMF 069, which is a significant step forward in performance. The design brief for the new X-LPS phono stage was: 1 Improved RIAA accuracy and lower noise; 2 Proper dynamic range and load-driving ability; 3 Neutrality and realism; 4 Excellent reliability, good build quality and competitive price.
It really is simple: realism and neutrality are closely related to the RIAA accuracy and noise. If these are not excellent, then it is simply not possible to retrieve what has been lost.
The X-LPS RIAA is extremely accurate from 20Hz to about 80kHz and beyond.
This is significant, since most RIAA correction curves stop at about 20Hz when unity gain is reached. In terms of the phono cartridge’s response, the electronics have an effective rising frequency response characteristic. Musical Fidelity has taken great pains to have a passive equalisation network above 20kHz. This means that the 6dB per octave characteristic equalisation curve continues, in theory, almost to infinity. Sibilance, harshness, and high frequency overload are simply abolished. In the low end, the accuracy is maintained down to at least 20Hz. This, coupled with a generously wide overload margin, results in a clean, extended, tight, fast bottom end.
In addition to excellent RIAA characteristics, the X-LPS has excellent ratios which allow the full transfer of information from the cartridge to the amplifier, with maximum fidelity (RIAA correction plus low distortion) and full dynamic range (low noise and wide overload margin).
Musical Fidelity’s new integrated circuit, the SSMF 069, has given us great flexibility in achieving excellent overload margins (particularly low frequencies) and low distortion. Phono stages must also be able to drive the load presented by cables and amplifiers. The X-LPS output stage has been beefed up to increase its peak current ability and reduce its output impedance. It offers significant improvements over the older product in this vital, but under-appreciated, area.
Neutrality is king. Not dry, harsh, dead, or dull. Not sweet, plummy, or warm. What it means is: real. Once we had achieved all our technical aims (RIAA, noise, distortion, overload, and load-driving ability), then we engineered the X-LPS phono stage so that it was truly neutral.
The X-Series components have set new benchmarks for reliability. The new X-LPS continues and improves upon this standard.
The elegant circuit board is housed in the non-microphonic, custom, Х-Series casework extrusion. The front panel is machined from heavy, mil. spec aluminium billet. The custom-extruded rubber feet nestle in the modified casework to further assist with microphonic rejection.
We feel that, with the X-LPS, Musical Fidelity has achieved our design brief for accurate RIAA over a huge bandwidth, extremely low noise, low distortion, and wide overload margins, with a realistic neutral sound, with high quality build both internally and of the casework.
Specifications:
MM input
Sensitivity: 3 mV
Input impedance: 47 KW
THD: < 0.01% @ 1 kHz, 350 mV out
Input overload margin: 27 dB
S/N ratio: > 75 dB unweighted; > 80 dB “A” weighted
MC input
Sensitivity: 350 mV
Input impedance: 100 W
THD: < 0.01% @ 1 kHz, 350 mV out
Input overload margin: 27 dB
S/N ratio: > 65 dB unweighted; > 72 dB “A” weighted
General
RIAA accuracy: + 0.5 dB 20 Hz - 20 kHz
Power requirement: 12 V AC 500 mA (via mains adaptor supplied)
Dimensions: 110 (W) x 220 (D) x 110 (H) mm (width and height include feet)

Turnaround

Orders will usually dispatched within 2 working days of receiving cleared payment.

Shipping Rates

We calculate your shipping rate based on the total weight of your items and your delivery address. Standard shipping to the UK Mainland (excludes Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Channel Islands) is free, except where specifically indicated. Don't worry, you'll always see the final shipping charge displayed before you reach the payment step (on the checkout page).

Carriers

We despatch the bulk of our UK mainland items on a 24 hour service.  Non-Mainland locations – Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, the Scilly Isles, the Scottish highlands and Islands, the Channel Islands and Northern Ireland may take a day or so longer. Smaller items are delivered using Royal Mail 24 or special delivery. Larger items are delivered using a courier service such as UPS and occasionally by a Pallet service.

Order Tracking

If a tracking # is provided by the carrier, we will update your order with the tracking information. Please note that some orders will not have tracking numbers.