This is a very quiet, dynamic and musical phono stage with tons of headroom on tap due to its massive power supply, giving detailed and prodigious bass, clear and open midrange, and airy treble. This is a very flexible phono with lots to offer for the price.
Google professional and user reviews, they are all positive. This is a sleeper that really delivers the goods. I have used it with various Dynavector carts, and my references the Shelter 501 and 901 without disappointment.
Local pickup welcome. Packed and ready to go. Shipping extra, Paypal adds 3.5%. At asking price of $800, will include Hi-Fi Tuning fuse that goes well with this stage.
From Heed's site:
The QUASAR is built in dual-mono configuration from the power supply upwards. There are two separate amplifier stages for MM and MC cartridges, both being fed from their own regulated power supply arrangement. Optimum adjustments to the cartridge in use can be applied for sensitivity and load by various settings of the jumpers on the PCB. The two separate outputs with different sensitivities make it possible for preamps or recorders to be fed via 'Low Out', whilst its 'High Out' can drive power amps directly.
The output stage has huge headroom at extremely low noise levels and, due to its low output impedance and high current delivery, can drive long interconnect cables without any sonic degradation.
The enhanced power supply of the QUASAR, the Q-PSU that also can be used as power supply upgrade with other components like the QUESTAR phono stage or the DACTILUS D-to-A converter, is based around a 60 VA toroidal transformer with low-density magnetic field and very little dispersion. This power, together with 40,000 µF filtering, can feed the circuit with the kind of super-clean current usually delivered only by battery-based supplies, even with extreme dynamic swings.
Specifications:
Input sensitivity (MM): 2.5 mV Input sensitivity (MC): 100 / 200 / 600 µV (variable) Input impedance (MM): 47 kΩ Input impedance (MC): 100 / 220 / 470 / 47000 Ω (variable) Output level / impedance: 775 mV (0 dBm) / 65 dB Headroom: 24 dB (MM), 22 dB (MC) Dimensions (WxHxD): 9.5x7.2x25cm
