Michell Apollo Phono Stage – Quick Look

All Image Credit: Apollo.

Michelle Audio of the UK, have announced the APOLLO phono stage and companion separate MUSE power supply. This two box design keeps the power supply separate to the main sensitive electronics minimizing any possible noise and interference pickup.

Both the APOLLO and MUSE enclosures are machined from solid aluminum in a two-part tight fitting clam shell design that acts as a Faraday cage, ensuring both high noise isolation and a compact robust construction. Signal connectivity is via gold-plated unbalanced RCA connectors.

The APOLLO phono stage uses an all Class A design borrowing on design technologies used in professional microphones and employing a finely tuned passive RIAA equalizer. Each stage is claimed to be “monitored and controlled using feedback circuits to guarantee consistent performance”. The design is compatible with both moving magnet (MM) and moving coil (MC) cartridges with outputs between 0.05mV and 5.0mV. It offers five gains between 40dB and 73dB with five selectable loads between 33 ohms and 47K ohms. Selection of the gains and loads is achieved using the DIP switches on the bottom of the pre-amp.

Powering the phono amplifier is a separate MUSE power supply that uses a high-quality, low-noise toroidal transformer, advanced capacitance multiplier technology, dual filtered with high-quality voltage regulators to reduce ripple and noise, delivering two highly regulated DC outputs that feed additional power supply circuits within the APOLLO. Connecting the MUSE PSU to the APOLLO is a custom designed, external, high quality DC audio cable. It features; silver-plated OFC copper conductors, FEP insulation, AL-foil Mylar separators, high density tinned copper shielding and uses high quality ChorAlloy Plated XLR connectors on each end, all said to “maintain overall signal integrity”.

Specifications: