A while back, fellow audio enthusiast Pete Riggle of VTAF fame brought over a one-off deHavilland / Chaffee Engineering Model 222 tape-head amplifier that Kara Chaffee had added a phono section to specially for Pete.

Here's Pete's description of it during a little phono stage shootout he did:

"The first of these phono stages is the Kara Chaffee Model 222, which is a combined tube phono stage and tape playback stage, using a single op amp at the input of each channel to get something like 10 or 15 dB of low noise gain before handing the signal to 12AX7 vacuum tubes. In this unit we like the EI 12AX7. The EI 12AX7 tubes are NOS units from the Serbian plant that was bombed out during the Kosovo nightmare. The 222 was originally designed as a tape playback stage. I purchased the 222 because of its lovely sonics in tape playback. I've never heard tape sound so wonderful. It made sense that because this is a fabulous tape stage, it could could also be a fabulous phono stage. When I had begged sufficiently, Kara added phono EQ to the unit for me. The phono performance equals the tape performance."

When I posted about it I said:

"Kara’s Model 222 Vacuum Tube Magnetic Tape Playback Preamplifier is about the same size as my Leben RS-30EQ phono equalizer, and took its place on the equipment rack for our Saturday afternoon listening session. I’ll tell you what, Kara is really onto something with this design. While I haven’t done any focused listing comparisons with the Leben RS-30EQ or NVO SPA-II, I was very impressed with what I was hearing from the Model 222 as a phono equalizer. I’d really like to see Kara offer this as an option for the Model 222, I think it would be a hit with those who listen to both vinyl & magnetic tape. I also think in phono-only form it would nicely complement her line stage."

Well guess what? Pete sent me an e-mail a little bit ago saying that very thing had happened:

"Kara's Model 222, which you have heard, is now available as a combined phono/tape stage. Until now it has been available only as a tape stage. My unit was a one-off to test the concept. To my thinking, the Model 222 is the best phono stage I have heard. I think it is a fabulous buy to get one of the worlds great phono stages and one of the worlds great tape stages at Kara's price, which I believe is $2500."

So if you're in the market for a vacuum tube phono equalizer - especially if you run tape front end too - be sure to check out Kara Chaffee's Model 222 - it looks like a winner!