Simaudio MOON 110LP v2

MOON BY SIMAUDIO'S least costly phono preamp (it produces four) looks and feels anything but low rent. With a meticulously machined bowed facia fronting a compact aluminium chassis, it offers four gain settings up to 66dB and the bank of DIP switches on the underside also provides ample scope for experimenting with resistance and capacitance values.

There are four impedance increments (10, 100, 475 and 47kohm respectively) against the original model's 100 and 47kohm. Moreover, with the v2 you get to choose between the standard RIAA and newer IEC EQ curves.

All the settings are selected via small dual in-line package DIP switches. Round the back are two output and two input RCA sockets and a nicely engineered grounding post - gold-plated - plus the input for the 24V wall-wart power supply.

Sound quality