Turntable Lab: PH01 - Phono Preamp + Headphone Amp

I am pleased with the PH01. A few quick reasons for the TL;DR types: - Made in the USA - Fit and finish is top notch - Small footprint for what it does (two things in one: pre amp and headphone amp) - Quality control is spot on, comes with a hand signed QC card - Simple operation, high quality materials - At $180 total price that's $90 per component which is on par (if not a little cheaper) than buying two similar components (say a Schiit Magni and Mani, of which I have on another turn table and are excellent). - Have you seen the price of headphone amps? Have you seen the price of phono preamps? They are either cheap (and sh*t), or ever-more expensive (and sometimes sh*t). Yes, you can spend a LOT more and get a LOT more. But to have a nice 2-in-1 to drive a nice pair of Grados (in my case), you really cannot do better. - Cost, quality, build and function are all maximized to benefit the end consumer. Let me also share a few things that I didn't love. Trust me, I want to provide a balanced review so I am LOOKING for something not to like - inherent bias in the sample. - There is a substantial "pop" when turning the device on/off when the headphones are still attached or speakers are in place. Since I do not drive any speakers, I just unplug my Grado headphones before turning off the device. - The power button feels a little hobby-shop. There is no issue with function or fit/finish, but it looks like this was hand made. You will either love this aesthetic or not care about it in the least. - The device is well made, so well made that the metal enclosure is a little slippery on a tabletop (BUT), they have provided little plastic booties for the bottom allowing you to decide the orientation. Keep up the great work guys. I thought this was going to be a novelty item and sound like garbage, but it drives high-end Grados beautifully. Can you spend more? Yes. Should you have to? Depends, but for an excellent quality listening experience matched to a great turntable (Thorens in my case), you really have to try HARD to convince me otherwise.

I really wanted to like this little amp, and it could be great if it weren’t for two big problems - quality control and ground hum. I bought one and immediately noticed the hum. Tried different plug sockets, cables, everything - nothing worked. So I returned it and got a new one. Same thing as before, but even worse now as the ground screw was sitting loose out the back, and would have had to be opened to fix it. Given the hum problem I moved on to some Schiit products and haven’t looked back. A redesign for the hum and better QC could make this a great standalone product, there isn’t much like it on the market.

I was super excited to try this out. The one I received is defective and only plays out of one side. The build quality looked top notch but I was wrong about the PH01. I troubleshooted with my other phono pre and it worked fine. I wanted the PH01 because of the headphone option but I'll definitely be looking elsewhere for it's replacement. Bummer!

I wanted to integrate headphones into my very minimalist audio setup but I had one big problem... I am running a Pro-Ject Carbon Esprit turntable directly into a pair of Klipsch R15 PMs and a Klipsch R10 SW subwoofer. The problem is that the speakers have a built in preamp with no audio out so I had nowhere to connect a headphone amp. I know that I could've bought a separate pre-amp and headphone amp but that kind of defeats my minimalist approach and the cool thing about the TTL PH01 is that it's an all in one unit that feels really well built, looks good, sounds great and has a master volume knob that runs both the phones or the speakers, very convenient! And they're made in the USA! Another unexpected plus was that, with this in place, my speakers automatically turn on when I drop the needle on a record! So it connects like this, TT into the PH01, out of the PH01 into my powered speakers. This exactly what I needed to run headphones through my system. Thank you Turntable Lab for recognizing this problem out there for those of us going directly into powered speakers!

Somehow, this managed to make my speakers sound worse. Additionally, the headphones popped and cracked during playback. Overall, it sounded like my speakers and headphones were playing through gauze. Pro-ject Debut Carbon with Kanto YU4’s. I really wanted to like this product. There’s definitely a market for this. This is just sub par for the money and I was expecting so much more.

This is exactly what I needed to connect my turntable to my Bose roommate II speakers. Simple, solid, superb. More than I wanted to spend but well worth it.

Very disappointed did not last long

Turntable Lab has come up with a winner. It belies its small size and is easily comparable in sound quality to larger and more expensive units.

Does what it says it does. I wanted to use this to connect it directly to my turntable and just plug in headphones. Sounds great. Good power/volume. Very happy with this purchase. Tried a cheaper alternative and didn’t sound as good and volume was very limited.