Gold Note PH-1000 LITE

Gold Note PH-1000 LITE

Eighteen equalisation curves and a headphone output, at half the price of the PH-1000

The PH-1000 LITE is the most honest way of saving money that Gold Note offers. It is not a smaller sibling with less chassis and fewer sockets, but the same machine with two things taken out.

What stays: all eighteen equalisation curves, each also in an Enhanced variant — which is the actual reason for buying anything in this range. Twelve loading values on the RCA input, eight on the balanced XLR input, three inputs in total. The switchable infrasonic filter at 36 dB per octave. The headphone output. The 12-kilogram chassis with its linear dual-mono supply. And the option of retrofitting a valve output stage.

What is missing: gain reaches 60 dB for MC rather than 65 dB. That is enough for the great majority of MC cartridges; only the very quietest become tight. And the freely adjustable curves with four memory slots are gone — the eighteen fixed ones remain. Unless you want to build a curve by hand because some obscure pressing fits nothing else, you will not miss them.

What is left is a machine that does almost everything the PH-1000 does for a little over half the money. Dirk Sommer listened to it on a Brinkmann LaGrange and writes that he has yet to meet an equaliser as opulently equipped.

What the press says

HIFISTATEMENT, Dirk Sommer, January 2024

„Bisher ist mir kein Entzerrer mit einer so opulenten Ausstattung begegnet wie diese Lite-Version.“

Translation: I have yet to come across an equaliser as opulently equipped as this Lite version.

HIFISTATEMENT, Dirk Sommer, January 2024

„Schon jetzt steht für mich fest, dass der Gold Note ungemein durchlässig agiert: Er reproduziert die charakteristischen Eigenarten der angeschlossenen Tonabnehmer ohne ihnen einen eigenen klanglichen Stempel aufzudrücken. So soll es sein!“

Translation: It is already clear to me that the Gold Note is extraordinarily transparent: it reproduces the characteristic traits of the cartridges connected to it without imposing a sonic stamp of its own. That is how it should be. — Heard on a Brinkmann LaGrange with a Thales Simplicity II and a Lyra Olympos SL.

HIFISTATEMENT, Dirk Sommer, January 2024

„Ich rechne mich keiner der beiden Gruppen zu, und dennoch hat mich der PH-1000 nachhaltig beeindruckt: durch seine drei Eingänge, die sehr gute Verarbeitung und seinen hervorragenden Klang. Einfach Klasse!“

Translation: I count myself in neither of the two groups, and yet the PH-1000 made a lasting impression on me: its three inputs, the very good build quality and its outstanding sound. Simply first class. — The two groups are collectors of historical pressings and owners of several cartridges.

Who is this for?

For anyone who wants a PH-1000 and does not want the price. What has been left out affects two very narrow groups: owners of extremely low-output MC cartridges who might miss those five decibels, and collectors who want to build an equalisation curve by hand. For everyone else the LITE is the same machine. If you are unsure whether your cartridge has enough output: send us the model and we will work it out.

Specifications