PS Audio PMG Signature Phono Stage
The PS Audio PMG Signature Phono Stage represents a revolutionary advancement in analogue playback, designed for vinyl enthusiasts seeking the ultimate listening experience.
Developed by PS Audio engineer Darren Myers, this groundbreaking phono preamplifier features a zero-feedback topology and a cutting-edge transimpedance input that eliminates distortion, colouration, and noise. This allows every nuance hidden within the grooves of your records to be revealed with remarkable clarity.
For the first time in PS Audio’s 50-year history, a phono preamp bears the name of founder Paul McGowan, reflecting the product’s extraordinary quality. Dual inputs accommodate both moving coil and moving magnet cartridges, and remote-controlled gain and loading options make it adaptable to any system.
With its fully discrete FET design, the PMG Signature delivers ultra-low noise, massive headroom, and dynamic, lifelike sound.
Design and Engineering Excellence
The PMG Signature Phono Stage is the result of a no-compromise design philosophy, rejecting cost-saving shortcuts such as integrated circuits, shared power supplies, and simplified signal paths. Every stage is built from hand-selected discrete FETs and BJTs operating in pure Class A, ensuring unmatched sonic purity.
The fully complementary and direct-coupled topology minimizes distortion while maximizing resolution, delivering astonishing headroom and lightning-fast transient response. High-end design choices enable the reproduction of the most subtle musical details and explosive dynamics with equal ease.
The PMG Signature Phono Stage is engineered to endure, providing decades of consistent performance. It sets a new benchmark in analogue playback, making it clear how far vinyl reproduction can be elevated in fidelity, control, and emotional impact.
Application and Flexibility
The PMG Signature Phono Stage is designed to serve as the centrepiece of the finest analogue systems, compatible with top-tier tonearms, cartridges, and turntables. Its transimpedance input provides a direct, uncoloured path from cartridge to amplification, eliminating loading concerns and uncovering unprecedented detail, texture, and spatial accuracy.
For more traditional setups, the voltage input offers adjustable gain and loading, all controllable via remote for convenience from the listening chair. Dual inputs accommodate two tonearms simultaneously, ensuring flexibility for complex setups.
The PMG Signature effortlessly adapts to low-output moving coil and high-output moving magnet cartridges alike. Its fully discrete zero-feedback design ensures transparency and authority, making it the definitive phono stage for those seeking the most accurate and expressive vinyl reproduction.
Technology and Features
At its core, the PMG Signature Phono Stage uses a groundbreaking zero-feedback architecture, a first in PS Audio history, that separates surface noise from music while preserving every nuance of the recording.
The optional pure current-mode transimpedance input is ideal for low-output moving coil cartridges and requires no loading, delivering unmatched transparency. Fully discrete Class A FET circuitry provides massive headroom and ultra-low noise while diamond buffers preserve transient response.
Features include a Class A balanced analogue output stage, zero-feedback folded cascades, fixed and variable loading, a hybrid design, and high-current analogue power supply. Balanced XLR outputs and dual inputs for tonearms further enhance flexibility and performance, while no capacitors are used in the output signal path to preserve sonic purity.
Build Quality and Specifications
The PMG Signature Phono Stage is housed in a precision-engineered chassis measuring 14 3/4” by 17 1/2” by 4 3/8” and weighing 30 pounds, with a shipping weight of 34 pounds. It operates on auto voltage for 120VAC or 230VAC at 50 or 60Hz.
Inputs include XLR or RCA connections for moving coil, moving magnet, and transimpedance cartridges, while outputs provide one balanced XLR pair and one unbalanced RCA pair. DC trigger inputs allow integration into complex audio systems.
Performance is exceptional, with adjustable loading options for a wide range of cartridges, ultra-low noise, massive headroom, and unparalleled dynamic response. The PMG Signature Phono Stage delivers vinyl playback that is transparent, lifelike, and deeply engaging, redefining the standards of analogue reproduction.
Specifications:
- Unit Weight - 30 lbs / 13.6 kg
- Unit Dimensions - 14 3/4” x 17 1/2” x 4 3/8” (with feet) / 375 mm x 445 mm x 112 mm (with feet)
- Shipping Weight - 34 lbs / 15.4 kg
- Shipping Dimensions - 20 1/2” x 24” x 10” / 521 mm x 610 mm x 254 mm
- Colour Options - Black / Silver
- Voltage Options (Factory set only) - Auto Voltage: 120VAC or 230VAC, 50 or 60Hz
- Fuses - 120V: T250V-1.6AH (1.6A Slow Blow) / 230V: T250V-1AH (1A Slow Blow)
- Accessories Included - US (NEMA 5-15P, 100V/120V versions) / Schuko (CEE7/7, 230V version) / UK (BS1363, 230V version)
- Remote Control - Included
- Audio Inputs - MM or MC: XLR or RCA / TZ: XLR or RCA
- Audio Outputs - RCA (Unbalanced) 1 Stereo Pair / XLR (Balanced) 1 Stereo Pair
- DC Trigger - Input: 3.5mm (2) 5-15VDC
- Performance Notes - All measurements with both channels operating, gain set to low, and balanced outputs. Input frequency: 1kHz.
- Input Loading - 47K, 1K, 470, 320, 200, 140, 100, 67, 40, 30, 16, 12
