Moon 810LP Phono Preamplifier Preview

Simaudio introduced the Moon 810LP Phono Preamplifier at the Venetian, their latest addition to the Evolution Series of audio components. The 810LP features a dual-mono fully balanced differential design, and represents the company's “all out assault” on phono preamplification. They describe the preamp as an "ultra-refined audio circuit" which they have mounted on top of a floating suspension. As with many audiophile products, the Moon 810LP is also highly configurable, with selectable gain, impedance loading, capacitance loading and equalization curves. These can all be tweaked using DIP switches located on the bottom of the device. The goal is to make sure the Moon 810LP works with, and more importantly - sounds good with - virtually any available phono cartridge on the market.

The 810LP uses an oversized power supply, located within the main chassis, that is housed in an isolated enclosure is constructed from satin coated 14-gauge steel (honestly, given the price I would have marketed this as "unobtainium"). Within this enclosure is a high quality toroidal transformer, a “pi-type” filter to reduce AC transmission noise and multiple stages of voltage regulation. Finally, on the actual audio circuit, there are 4 stages of M-LoVo – an all new proprietary MOON low voltage DC regulation circuit. Combining all of these factors, the Moon 810LP’s power supply is designed specifically to surpass the performance of a battery power supply with respect to both audio signal-to-noise ratio and voltage regulation.

Significant Design Features

• The dedicated audio circuit board is mounted on a 5-point gel-based floating suspension derived from M-Octave technology of the reference Moon 850P Preamplifier
• 4 stages of M-LoVo Moon low voltage DC regulation circuit; power supply noise floor of -150dB related to 1.0V, DC - 100kHz.
• Adjustable impedance loading - 64 available settings from 12.1Ω to 47kΩ
• Adjustable capacitance loading - 16 available settings from 0pF to 1120pF
• Adjustable gain settings - 16 available settings from 40dB to 70dB
• Selectable equalization curves for both the RIAA and the IEC standards
• Power supply voltage regulation includes i^2DCf (Independent Inductive DC Filtering); There is one inductor dedicated to each integrated circuit type component (DAC, Op-Amp, etc.) in the audio circuit’s signal path - 24 stages in all
• Customized parts include metallized polypropylene film capacitors with very tight tolerances of 1%
• Four-layer PCB tracings with dedicated ground and power planes using pure copper for low impedance characteristics. The advantages include better circuit layouts resulting in a much shorter signal path and a vastly improved signal-to-noise ratio
• Power supply featuring a "pi-type" filter comprised of 35,200uF of capacitance and dual choke inductance (2x 200mH)
• Accurate matching of the very finest quality electronic components in a symmetrical circuit design
• The shortest possible signal path for a faster transient response and the lowest possible noise floor.

The Moon 810LP will be available in February 2012 with an MSRP $12,000.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.