When we come home to our records, we want exhilaration. Intimacy. A compelling, moving experience. Boring sound simply will not do.

We knew we could get more from our vinyl. So we developed a phono preamp that works in a new way, to produce the emotional beauty we crave from our records. It’s called the Rhumba Xphono. It’s $7,800, and it’s going to change what you hear from your records.

That Feeling.

Bob Backert started the design of our phono preamp with GreenForce, his patented power supply. It’s more nimble than other power supplies. As a result, it propels a “happening-right-now” performance into your listening room.

He then added the tubed amplification circuit from our award-winning Rhythm linestage preamp. Big. Dynamic. Rhythmic. And faithful to the precise tone created by the performers on your favorite recordings. But he wasn’t finished.

Easy.

One of the founding principles of our company is that owning a tube preamp should be easy. So we’ll ask you about your cartridge, and configure your Rhumba Xphono for your system. You’ll be playing records in minutes. And if you change your cartridge later, adjusting your Rhumba Xphono will also be a breeze.

What about the tubes? Maybe you love tubes, or maybe you’ve never held one in your hand before. Either way, it’s OK. The Rhumba Xphono uses four 12at7’s, one of the most popular tubes in history. They are plentiful, and affordable. And Bob Backert designed the Rhumba Xphono so you won’t need to think about them much, because the Rhumba Xphono babies its tubes. We run them so gently, they might just outlast all of us.

You can easily lift our special tube door to replace the tubes, if you want to see how another brand sounds. (After turning the unit off, of course.) The tube door makes changing tubes as quick and easy as changing a light bulb.

• MM and MC inputs, via separate RCA input pairs
• MM/MC switch on front panel
• Gain switch on front panel gives easy access to 2 different levels of gain for both MM and MC
• MC: 67 or 61 dB
• MM: 47  or 41 dB
• Fully balanced XLR output and traditional single-ended RCA output
• Backert Labs’ famous auto bias for all four 12at7 tubes
• GreenForce power supply
• Gold Lion “gold pin” 12at7 tubes
• Easy tube access with our tube door on the top panel
• Mute switch on front panel
• 15 different load options for MC
• Changing MC load is easy: just plug in the supplied RCA plugs on the back panel
• 2 MC cartridges can be used at the same time, by feeding one into a step-up transformer leading to the MM input
• Two different grounding options for the ground wire coming from your turntable — “chassis ground” and “power supply ground” —  select the option that is most quiet in your system
• Solid brass feet, the same ones found on our Rhumba Extreme linestage.