StudioPhono - Phono Amplifier - MOFI

Phono Preamplifier - MM & MC - Handmade in the USA

When a company has been producing the world's most sonically demanding recordings - including the legendary Original Master Recordings - for more than five decades, it has an idea of what a phono preamplifier should do. The Mobile Fidelity StudioPhono is the distillation of that knowledge into one component: designed with the help of Tim de Paravicini, the engineer responsible for the entire analog editing system at the famed MoFi master studio in Sebastopol, California - and handcrafted at Mobile Fidelity's in-house manufacturing facility in Michigan, USA. A phono preamp that doesn't come from the marketing brochure, but from the mastering studio.

Tim de Paravicini's signature is recognizable in every detail of the StudioPhono: the circuit philosophy follows the principles of simplicity, purity and precision - no unnecessary stages, no compromising shortcuts. The result is an exceptionally low noise floor, broadband transparency across the entire frequency spectrum and a dynamic liveliness that prompted The Absolute Sound to comment that the StudioPhono is an all-star performer that shows no sign of compromise - and the magazine awarded it the coveted Editors' Choice Award 2024. An external, symmetrically designed power supply consistently keeps mains interference away from the sensitive audio path and contributes significantly to the extremely quiet background.

The StudioPhono's customizability is exceptional for its price range. An accessible DIP switch block on the underside of the device - which can be operated without tools - allows the gain and terminating impedance to be precisely matched to the pickup used. The amplification can be selected in four stages: 40, 46, 60 and 66 dB - so that both highly sensitive MM systems and low-impedance MC cartridges with low output voltage are optimally supplied. The MC termination impedance can be set in six steps from 75 ohms to 47,000 ohms, which means that practically any MC system on the market can be correctly terminated.

Two further functions on the top of the device complete the picture: The mono switch sums both channels - indispensable for the playback of mono LPs of any vintage. It reduces channel-specific noise, improves imaging stability and gives mono pressings back their characteristic, rich tonality - a feature that makes an immediate difference when playing back historical recordings or audiophile mono reissues. The subsonic filter, on the other hand, suppresses low-frequency interference vibrations caused by discarded records or acoustic feedback, which unnecessarily burden amplifiers and speakers.

Mobile Fidelity has spent more than two years developing prototypes and evaluating materials - in numerous listening sessions and in collaboration with some of the most respected engineers in the audio community. The result is a device where even seemingly minor details have been scrutinized for their sonic impact. The external power supply is not a concession, but a deliberate choice: it keeps transformer fields and mains noise physically separated from the audio path, enabling the extremely low noise floor that reviewers from The Absolute Sound and Hi-Fi+ alike have praised.

Hand-built in its own Michigan factory, the StudioPhono represents an approach that has become rare in today's audio industry: complete quality control under one roof, with the same standards that Mobile Fidelity has applied to its music releases for four decades. For those who have - or want to have - MoFi's original master recordings in their collection, the StudioPhono is the preamplifier that reproduces these recordings as they were mastered.