I'm listening to Egberto Gismonti's LP Sol Do Meio Dia right now, using the New Valve Order SPA one phono equalizer created by Andreas Hadjiminas, working out of Nicosia, Cyprus. Andreas does his artistic expression in vacuum tubes, and man, he is one of the gods of ancient times come to visit us again! The SPA one is a 'real world' version of his SPA II, which remains the best valve phono equalizer I've laid ears on.

Look at all those gorgeous tubes in the SPA one! Panikos Kontemeniotis (exporter of the New Valve Order Electronics) told me:

"The SPA one is a simplified version of the SPA-II, mostly in the power supply sections. In particular, it has two plate supply and two heater supply regulators, whereas the SPA-II has four each. This reduces the tube count down to sixteen. A more basic cathode follower output stage and one 6C45Pi per channel at the input gets us down to thirteen.

The other obvious difference is the one-box design. This was a big challenge, that is, to include the power transformer inside the same chassis with the audio circuits. To make this possible, the transformer has been specially manufactured and encased in magnetic isolation material, and is also installed in a way that minimizes magnetic interference (hum).

At its core, the design of the audio circuits is virtually the same as that of the SPA-II. The only differences are the one 6C45Pi per input stage, and one 12AU7 cathode follower output tube for both channels."

 Here's the specifications for the new NVO SPA one:

Gain MC: 60dB, Gain MM:50dB

Frequency Response: 20Hz – 200kHz within 0.5dB of RIAA curve

Total Harmonic Distortion: less than 0.05% in MC mode, less than 0.005% in MM mode

Signal to noise ratio: better than -60db @ 0.3mV MC input, better than -80db @ 2mV MM input

Minimum recommended input for MC: 0.2mV

Input load : MC / 1000 ohms, MM/ 47000 ohms

 Even straight out of the box, my first impressions of the SPA one are extremely positive.

Steven Klein at Sounds of Silence will be importing the New Valve Order SPA one to the USA.While the USA retail price has not yet been set, I suspect it will come in around $4,250.00. Contact Steven Klein for more information in the USA.

I'll be writing a comprehensive review of the NVO SPA one in a future issue of Positive Feedback Online. Look here at Jeff's Place for updates along the way to the full review. I can tell you this: If you want to get a jump on things, this is one fine phono pre, and I suspect you'd be ecstatic listening to it in your system. Now I've got to get back to listening to some music - this SPA one is nice!