Don't be fooled by the Rialto's relative affordability; this is a genuine high-end phono stage and competes way above its price range.
The first phonostage to bear the Rothwell name was designed as far back as 1989 and was debuted at the London Hi-Fi Show of 1990 (it was an expensive valve design with many of the features subsequently adopted by other manufacturers, like a large outboard power supply and selectable cartridge loading).
The goal when designing the Rialto was to achieve high-end performance without the high-end price tag. To this end, every effort was put into maximising sound quality and everything that has no bearing on sound quality was sacrificed.
The Rialto uses discrete components throughout with no op-amps, so the circuit operates in Class A with no crossover distorton. The components are audiophile-grade and the circuit has been designed to achieve low noise even with low ouput moving coils. However, for optimum performance from an MC cartridge, we recommend using the Rothwell MCL step up transformer into the MM stage of the Rialto.
The Rothwell Rialto Phonostage is a replacement for the Pro-Ject Tube Box SE II, which was purchased from A S around 9 years ago.I have noticed so much more detail. A great high end phonostage.Many thanks to the A S team for their recommendation.
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The phono amp arrived Hong Kong in a timely manner. Working fine for mm connection. For low voltage MC cartridge, one still needs a head amp to get it work, with gain and loading adjustment, too.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
I sent this item back as I preferred the Trichord Dino in my system but it was a very close decision. the Rialto gave a wonderful insight to the music and hands down slaughtered an Arcam rphono, Rega fono, naim stageline, Creek OBH, in my system anyway.My Rialto came with Rothwell River interconnects which I found to be excellent, very transparent.
12 of 18 people found this review helpful.
Quite simply the best thing I've bought in a long time. Sounds absolutely fantabulous...or rather it doesn't sound of anything, which is rather the point, just gets on with the job of letting the music come through un fettered. I couldn't be happier with the result Simon, thank you for listening to my needs and advising me so well. Massive improvement on the phono module in my A&R Cambridge C200 preamp.The magazine reviews are absolutely spot on and the advice and assistance from Analogue Seduction was fist class.
22 of 22 people found this review helpful.
Rothwell Iridium Valve Phonostage£1,379.00
Rothwell Signature Two Phonostage£1,800.00
Rothwell Simplex MM Phonostage£299.00
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