Testimonials

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"Man, what a transformation! These could even flat eq 20kHz! My audiophile friends were mightily impressed. I COULD NOT BLINDLY TELL WHEN THE $20K OUTBOARD PRE WAS PLAYING!! It's as simple as that. I swear, I don't know how they did it. You owe it to yourself if you have a Studer A8xx series deck."

Bruce B - WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member

"This weekend, I tested your card in my A80RC. It has butterfly head in like-new condition. Already from first listen with XLR connection, your NextGen card sound more natural/lifelike than any of the other 3  repro-head amplification options I have. So much more air and what I believe is correct tonal truth. That was with XLR. Thought that was it, and sure I can live happy with that.

But since you wrote that purist SE connections possibly could bring it even a step further, I finally made a pair of 3-meter silver cable made from a 12-meter length of bare 0,8 mm sterling silver wire.

First a check for noise or hum. Nothing. The system is Constellation Audio Virgo and Centaur mono amplifiers connected to Vivid Audio Giya 2 mk 2 with outboard crossover. I used this in my dedicated music room for long time so I’m used to how it sounds and hear any change. The SE connection bring me yet another step near to being in the room with the musicians. Life-like sound. There is an ease to the sound. The musicians are there with an ease and flow I have not heard before.

An improvement was obvious from the moment yesterday when I played first reel (Somethin ́ Else – Cannonball Adderley), but it kept on growing on me as I continued pass midnight. Until my wife reminded me that we have a Sunday appointment. It is great that you made such an excellent card available."

"After listening further now for more than a month's time, I can say without hesitation that, used with my Studer A80RC, the NextGen A80R/C repro boards balanced out sounds superior to any

other Tape repro I have tried; and yet, without doubt, the reproduction with the purist SE output really surprised me with yet another step of improvement. The tone (klang as we say it) of piano is now better than any I heard. And so is the definition, air and soundstage. It actually feels like the search is over."

Leif H, audionorde.se

"I received my outboard cards/frame from Jeff a couple weeks ago for use with my Ampex ATR-102. Since Jeff lives not too far from me, he came up to do the install and measurements and we did quite a lot of listening. The outboard frame is really nice- the cards just plug in, and there are very high quality (low noise) LED VU meters as well as switches for tape speed (I have 15/30 ips) and to turn the VU Meters off. I do not do any recording, at least right now, but the chassis has slots for Record cards if I want them in the future. We experimented with the rear panel "Standard" balanced outputs as well as the actual front of card outputs in balanced or single ended mode (depending on which cable adaptor we plugged it). As others have found here, the front panel outputs provided noticeable greater transparency as there is less buffering. Jeff did a little tweaking to match my Ampex metal heads and the measured frequency response was ruler flat up to 20K! (+ or - less than 0.5db in most cases; all well less than 1 db except at head bump which was only slightly higher). Most importantly, the sonics knocked my socks off! Mind blowing low level detail revealed never before heard spatial cues and hall/venue information. The cards are extremely low noise which aids of course in revealing the low level and micro-detail. Exceptional, true "studio recorder" dynamic range- wow! Above all, very "musical", non sterile. I am very happy! Jeff is a pleasure to work with and brilliant in what he does."

Tom C - xtremefidelity.net

"Jeff Polan is an 'electrical engineer for electrical engineers', the holder of numerous advanced-technology patents, and a lifelong audiophile who is big time into phono and tape reproduction. Jeff called me up a few months ago and told me that he had designed a phono preamp, based loosely on the NextGen tape repro cards. Now, we know that generally speaking, there is not that much difference between a tape head preamplifier circuit and a phono preamp. Both need to amplify vanishingly low signals from a coil of some type, and do it with as little noise as possible. Of course, EQ and impedance matching are different. So, it is not unnatural that Jeff would attempt to apply his circuits designs to phono. Having had such great experience with the Repro cards, I jumped and said 'yes' to Jeff's request to loan me the new phono preamp pair to listen to.

Indeed, I expected a somewhat similar sonic presentation to the wonderful tape cards, and I did experience that, to some extent. However, what I did not expect were the sonic results of some new and highly-innovative engineering that Jeff created that differentiates the Phono cards, not only from their tape cousins, but sonically from almost every other modern phono amplifier. Among these innovations is a specially-developed Group Delay Compensation model for cutting head and inverse RIAA characteristics used in cutting. This provides unrivaled transparency and information retrieval.   

Jeff provides complete technical detail of the cards with specifications, functionality and configuration on his website, so no need for me to get in the middle. Make sure you pay attention to the outstanding configuration flexibility as well.  

So how does it SOUND? Sorry, but I already lost my socks when I first listened to the tape repro cards; this phono preamp does it again and yet is unlike virtually anything I've heard. First, I was slammed with a huge dynamic range- just totally effortless! Like the tape cards, the noise level approaches the technical term of "zilch to -10". This allows me to hear micro-details, hall or studio ambience, creaking chairs, fingers on strings and natural decay to an extent I had not experienced with both solid state and tube phono circuits. There is transparency and speed to a remarkable extent without producing a sonic signature that is all about transparency, detail and speed like so many other products. Nor, is it about a lush presentation that is temporarily soothing and which can fool you into thinking it's real. THIS phono preamp is ultimately about the natural, true sound of music and not a hyped avatar. The Nextgen phono cards walk perfectly the balance between transparency, detail, speed and low noise vs. authentic timbre, harmonic structure (OK, somewhat like the not-necessarily-still-valid comparison of solid state vs. tubes) resulting in just "real music", including the huge dynamic range of the real thing. Oh, and the soundstage! Wow! It just makes you want to keep listening, LP after LP.  

Just be aware, the genius and magic resides in Jeff's extremely well-built, professional circuit cards (built on the Studer form factor used for his tape repro version). The cards slide into a "highly utilitarian", 5 1/4" standard rack chassis, virtually identical to the external chassis used for non-Studer A-80 tape card applications like mine. As such, the chassis is not, at this early stage, a pretty piece of kit. Nevertheless, it does have unique high-response, low noise digital VU meters which can be calibrated to a given level (and can be turned off) as well as a low noise external linear power supply that can be hidden away. The packaging is more of form-follows-function thing.

One final critical point- Jeff provides standard outputs on the rear of the chassis. HOWEVER, the cards have a mini-XLR output on the front of the card. OMG, use these outputs! The front panel outputs bypass certain buffer stages and, as great sounding as the regular rear panel connections are, the front panel outputs are the way to go for ultra-level performance and transparency. The output cables need to be custom built with a mini-XLR (I use Furutech) and can be wired as either single-ended or balanced. Of the 2 configurations, maximum performance is reached with the single-ended configuration (even if you have to use an RCA>Balanced adaptor into your line stage).   

Get past the current physical appearance and you will experience an innovative & highly flexible phono preamplifier with groundbreaking musical sonics. In my experience, there is little, if anything, like it. Of course I bought one, and I can't stop listening. Such fun!"

Tom C - xtremefidelity.net

Dealer: XtremeFidelity. (VAC, Bricasti, Siltech, Silent Angel, Merrill Audio, Sonore, and others).
System: TIDAL Audio Agoria Loudspeakers; Tidal Prisma Preamp & Tidal Ferios mono blocks; TechDas AirForce V Premium TT with Kuzma 4 Point arm & Transfiguration Proteus Diamond Cartridge; NextGen Phono Preamp; Ampex ATR-102 reel-reel with NextGen Tape Repro Preamp; Sonore Signature RenduSE Optical Network Player; Silent Angel Munich MU Streamer; Bricasti M1-II DAC; Siltech Cables, Silent Angel BonnNX ethernet switch; Mutec Nano clock; Symposium Racks.

Http://www.whatsbestforum.com/posts/953418

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"I would like to share my experience with NextGen’s phono preamp. Since I have been using Jeff Polan’s recording and playback cards for the Studer A80 Mark II since 2022—with fantastic sound, far superior to the original cards—I decided to purchase the phono preamp in the hope that it would surpass my Tom Evans Supreme, TOL, for which I paid nearly 40k USD.

My system consists of MBL Reference 101 E Mark II speakers, 2x MBL 9008 amplifiers, an Audiopax L50 Reference preamplifier, a Transrotor Tourbillon turntable, a SME-V tonearm, and a Benz LP-S cartridge. Cables by Logical Design. NADAC Player DAC with power and clock. Studer A80 RC Mk II 15/30 ips 1/2”. Line conditioners Elgar 6006B and 5006B.

After three weeks of listening to the NextGen preamp, I continue to be amazed. It feels like I’m hearing my records for the first time. It has definitively dethroned the TE Supreme. I’ve been listening to reel-to-reel tapes since the early 1960s. I stopped listening to vinyl in the 1990s and returned to it 15 years ago. Never have I enjoyed listening to vinyl as much as I do now. Thank you, Jeff."

Milton Carvalho

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/jeff-polans-new-nextgen-phono-preamp.38442/post-1034288

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"Been using tape repro cards from NextGen for quite some time and am very happy with these. Got the opportunity to try their Phono boards and have by now spent half a year in comparing these with other Phono-amplifiers. Some at many times it’s price. Arm and cartridge used are Brinkmann Breuer 12” with EMT cartridge and Supatrack 12” with My Sonic Lab Signature Platinum. These NextGen Phono-cards are the most detailed and with reproduction of depth and space better than anything I have yet heard. Perhaps a slight loss of warmth like that what one gets from tubes. That is my feel day one, while the next day I prefer without that warmth. The difference is so very small that I on / off doubt my own judgment. All in all I feel this is the best Phono reproduction. Outstanding musical reproduction and a reference to which others must be compared."

Leif Haagmark - AudioNord

https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/jeff-polans-new-nextgen-phono-preamp.38442/post-1040236

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"You just don't see this kind of pcb layout and routing anymore. A true museum piece."