Specifically developed for high quality moving magnet, moving iron, and high output moving coil cartridges which require a fixed 47k Ohm load. It may also be used for low output moving coil cartridges by placing an Elevator head amplifier before it. The separation of MM and MC level matching functions removes all design compromises setting the music free!

Because there are no switch contacts in the signal path and because of its extremely fast amplifier stages with matched, high speed, low dielectric absorption RIAA networks, the Era Gold will retrieve detail from records with crystal clarity and precision, produce an amazingly accurate and stable stereo image, tight powerful bass and fantastic detail resolution with vast improvement to musical timing and timbre, along with the ethereal or ephemeral feel of valves... The resulting sound is startling in its musicality!

It is THE listeners' phono stage

As with many high performance products, the results it gives will only be as good as the source feeding it, but with a good turntable-arm-cartridge combination the results will be heard. In development the excellent Music Maker II moving iron cartridge and improved Hadcock GH228 Export arm were used.

At last, much of the grittiness blamed on the vinyl medium is exchanged for real music. Brass, with its complex harmonic structure appears as it should, rather than the usual distortion you get with slower stages.

As, is usually the case, it's the attention to the smallest details which make the biggest difference to how things sound. With the Era Gold, these small details are reproduced with such finesse that the music is brought to life. The life it had when committed to the master tape! Not just with modern high quality pressings or direct cut discs, but with used vinyl too, right back to the birth of RIAA stereo recordings.

How this is achieved is based on Graham Slee Projects concept of phase integrity, which can only be realised by fast electronics, which in turn is an art seldom understood, or achieved by other phono stage manufacturers. Every natural sound has its harmonics. These harmonics carry the information our hearing needs to distinguish between instruments, voices, the particular way in which they are played or sung. They also carry the micro-information about the recording venue, the microphone placement, the reverb - natural or synthetic - sounds and energies that make up the backdrop to the recording, and that backdrops perspective.

The power supply used to power the Era Gold is The PSU1, it uses extremely low impedance, high temperature reservoir capacitors, paralleled for even lower impedance, prior to a voltage regulator, which itself, is very low impedance. Its 12 watt peak capability is far greater than the power demanded by the Era Gold.

Additionally, the voltage is regulated a second time within the phono stage itself, providing an extremely clean power supply to the amplifiers. It is further improved by distributed tantalum capacitors. However, it is GSP's attention to the signal ground which makes the biggest impact. The ground is many orders of magnitude more stable than any other phono stage on the market, no matter how big the power supply!

The fast circuitry of the solid state Era Gold places it on par with many a valve phono stage. In fact, it can be quite difficult to differentiate between it and a valve stage. However the Era Gold carries none of the frequency limitations (Miller capacitance). Many have found it unbelievable that such a big, controlled and astonishingly musical sound can be "made" by such a small "box".