The CLONES Audio PA-1 Phono Preamplifier:
By Tony Bender
One of the most challenging aspects of my audio journey has been trying recapture the euphoria I experienced in the mid-Seventies in a dorm that featured a number of pretty tasty audio systems. Fate had thrown me in with the rich kids.
Maybe my memory is colored, possibly clouded by substances that are now legal in some states, but somewhere in between then and the emergence and apparent death throes of CD reproduction, I was unable to recapture that “feel.”
Hearing Al Stewart’s Year of the Cat or Steely Dan’s Royal Scam for the first time on good system in that Golden Age of Audio spoiled my ears forever.
Pioneer receivers and Technics turntables were de rigueur on the 3rd floor of Binneweis Hall back then. They beat the heck out of the old console stereo I had lugged into my room. Really. But, hey, it had tubes. I played a lot of Kiss. I realize now how wrong that was on so many levels.
The last time during that era that I really enjoyed LP playback was with a roommate’s Onkyo A-5 amp, a SL-20 Technics turntable and RTR 2-way speakers. Fast, crisp and detailed with great air and resolution. But we blew a lot of tweeters, a fatal flaw in an otherwise darn nice speaker.
I had a nomadic lifestyle for many years—working in radio—but when I was finally begin to assemble a decent system, I discovered newer receivers—unlike the integrated amps and receivers of the 70’s and early 80’s—had stopped focusing on the art of producing great vinyl playback. Onboard phono stages had become more of an afterthought than the primary focus.
And, despite the fingernails on the blackboard production of early CD’s, eventually digital media and players started to sound pretty good—great, as a matter of fact, if you had the patience and the cash to find the right player. And let’s face it, the production improved a great deal and eventually lived up to the advantages of the format.
I drifted away from integrated amps and receivers because as much as I like convenience, I realized there was only so much an all-in one package can do. I turned to separates. That said, there are exceptions to every rule and some integrated amps that will knock your socks off. But then your feet get cold and your wife nags you to pick them up. Who needs the aggravation?
I kept a turntable on hand and occasionally spun the collection of records I had lugged across much of North America. And I kept searching, like Mick Jagger, for satisfaction. I bought a series of good quality turntables and mid-priced cartridges in ensuing years, as well as a long line of phono stages, hovering in price within a few hundred dollars on either side of the $1,000 mark, few of which enjoyed an extended stay in my system.
I ended up spending a whole lot more to finally achieve LP playback that pleased me as much (or more) as my reference CD player.
Still, having heard so many good things about CLONES Audio components, I was eager see what could be accomplished for $850. A lot, it turned out.
One thing I’ve learned about audio components is a separate power supply is a good sign, especially when it comes to the easily polluted amplified signal of phono cartridges. So when I got my hands on the CLONES PA-1 and saw the matching power supply and umbilical cord, I knew we were off to a good start.
Mark Sossa of Well Pleased AV in Alexandria, VA, who sent me the PA-1 to audition, confirmed the unit was dead cold, untouched by electricity since arriving from Hong Kong. CLONES Audio is effectively one man—Funjoe—one man, one name and a quickly growing reputation for handcrafting gear that performs well above its price point.
Now, any good reviewer would give the component plenty of burn-in time before listening. Instead, you got me. The unit was unboxed before my postman pulled out of the driveway, and only a brief search for my metric hex wrenches to set the DIP internal switches delayed placement of the unit inline.
Both chassis’ have a modest 5” x 4 3/4” (120 x 127 mm) footprint. I was immediately impressed by the clean layout inside. I know a good solder when I see it. The whole build, inside and out is clean, sleek, utilitarian.
My turntable is a Well-Tempered Classic with Dyanavector Karat 17D moving coil cartridge with a top-of the line Soundsmith rebuild. It is an old-school rig that is accurate, detailed with good body.
The rest of my system, comprised of a German made Symphonic Line CD player, SL Die Erleuchtung tube preamp, SL Kraft 250 class A monoblocks and Wilson Sophia speakers. It is a system designed to do most things very well, which I think, is what most music lovers want to accomplish. In that regard, I found the CLONES PA-1 to be very adaptable.
Now, the best vinyl rig I have heard featured a $7,000 tonearm and $60,000 horn speakers—easily $100,000 street value once amplification was factored in. It was brilliant, feathery and sublime with acoustic and jazz tunes, and at one point in the reverie, I am convinced either Louie Armstrong or Ella Fitzgerald was sitting on my lap.
But my host never played a serious rock and roll record—that probably wasn’t his thing—but more importantly, that wasn’t what the system was best suited to do. At every step in this game, there is give and take—compromises—and if you have a wide scope of musical likes, you need a system that delivers air and punch, the big picture and nuance. That, the CLONES was able to do effortlessly.
I set the DIPs to 100 ohms and started with the very low end of the three MC selections: 0.25-01.mV.
One of the dynamic pressings in my collection is The Cars, Elektra, 1978. It’s still in marvelous shape, and a reminder of how good LP production could be. The bite of the guitar riff on “Let the Good Times Roll,” was there with the dry, nasal, disaffected voice of Ric Ocasek in splendid form.
A hallmark of a quality component is an ability to reveal things to me in the music I had missed in hundreds of spins over the years. Even though I quickly judged the trial setting to be a bit thin for my liking, I played the whole side and discovered that the CLONES PA-1 does an exceptional job of stereo separation. Maybe the best I’ve heard.
And even when I cycled through the next two MC settings, each increasingly richer in body and tone, that separation continued to stand out, especially with the track “Moving in Stereo” on which the PA-1 revealed subtle soundstage placements I had never picked up on before, specifically on Greg Hawkes’ brilliant keyboards, which otherwise seem relegated too far back in the soundstage. It’s about aural discovery, isn’t it—the kick, the revelation you get when you hear a performance from a slightly different perspective.
I eventually settled on the 0.25-0.4 mV setting which took it from a drier to a richer presentation.
Even without proper break-in, the audio carnage I had half-expected never took place. My biggest gripe with solid state phono stages over the years has been that while many are typically well suited to produce accuracy and detail—which are necessary in my world—all too often, there was some stridency. If ever I was going to hear it from this CLONES phono preamplifier, it would be fresh out of the box. Never happened.
Instead, in a couple hours of listening, I heard a wonderful balance between tone, detail, attack and decay. The background was quiet, any surface noise was rendered so far back in the soundstage it was only afterward that I realized I hadn’t heard any. But, that was on very clean recordings. If you have an LP that survived 19 keggers, a hurricane and your roommate, “All Thumbs” Boris, all that history will be there, too, along with the original recording.
The initial session included Robbie Robertson’s self-titled LP, Geffen, 1987, which is a great test of low end, which the Clones reproduced unerringly and richly.
Not unexpectedly, in fact, like every cold component I’ve broken in, the presentation started out a bit compressed—more than two dimensional but not yet three dimensional.
I resolved in the next session to cycle through the DIP switches again to make sure I had the sweet spot—which is the key to any successful phono set up. It’s OK to experiment beyond what “should” be the right set up. The phono stage doesn’t care. Your ears do. So, be a rebel—just don’t ask me to bail you out.
The CLONES is designed to be left on—no on/off switch—and the next day, a spin of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, originally recorded in 1964 (but in this case, reproduced on 180 gram vinyl by GPR Records), revealed the same width and stereo separation with stellar, tight representation of percussion. A real sense of space was evolving.
Words like “refinement” and “sophistication” came to mind. I didn’t feel the recording was embellished in any way, but more importantly, it didn’t need to be. All frequencies were there in balanced fashion, which is very difficult to achieve. Often “perfect” highs are a trade-off for solid lows and vice-versa. Neutrality is the key, here, and when combined with transparency, it’s a very good thing.
By the fourth day, I had marched through a variety of familiar recordings—notably Micheal Franks’ Passionfruit, Warner Brothers, 1983; and a Mobile Fidelity half-speed master of Gino Vannelli’s Powerful People, AM Records, 1974. While the admirable separation was still there—a sign of a black background and absence of crosstalk—the soundstage had filled in and the old disappearing speakers trick was in full force. Also, any previously perceived “holes” between tweeters, midrange and woofers, were now seamless and fluid.
The well-used Vannelli LP had a few pops and ticks, but the dynamics and flesh of the recording were well presented and well into 3D territory. The representation was honest—again, no embellishment. This preamp is not a show-off. Most notable was the balance between accuracy and body without striking a strident note. Even on lesser recordings that might push a system to the brink, the CLONES phono preamp refused to take it over the edge. Great recordings were especially well-rewarded.
Michael Franks can be counted upon for great sonics, and even though Passion Fruit is thematically dated, notably, “Now That Your Joystick’s Broke”, there is a lot of ear candy here that the CLONES delivered very well, always keeping its poise. It represents the leap from cemetery quiet to sudden dynamics very well.
Mark Sossa told me that Clones gear responds especially well to solid core cabling. That was an easy one—here comes the obligatory disclaimer—I am co-owner, co-developer, and “the ears” of Darwin Cable Company. We manufacture silver solid core air dielectric cables aimed at neutrality and transparency. I voice them. We used Darwin Truth cables from wall to speakers in this audition.
Mark was right. The CLONES had no sins to hide, and as demanding as my system is about the truth, the Clones went 15 rounds without breaking a sweat.
When you start from a place of neutrality and articulation, it opens up more possibilities downstream. If you have very revealing gear, the Clones will match your demand for no-nonsense precision. Me, I’m an accuracy guy. Other people like a little embellishment and a little injected warmth, and that’s fine, too.
My Dynavector cartridge is known for its speed and accuracy. However, I kept wishing I had held on to the old Shure V-15 MK IV moving magnet cartridge I once owned, because its body and sweetness would have been nicely blended with the CLONES’ ability to extract information. Any number of full-bodied suspects—Grado comes to mind—would be a great pairing.
I also have a pair of Pat McGinty’s Meadowlark Heron I transmission line speakers, silk dome tweeters, huge bass, a great rock and roll speaker, but a bit too sweet and warm to be paired with anything that isn’t sonically tight.
This is my second pair of Herons. I had a pair, sold them because the Sophias were overall better, BUT when I had the chance to get another pair, I jumped at it. I missed that fat, juicy, plaster-rattling thump. While I still listen to the Sophias most of the time, no component can be all things. Tell your spouse that. It will justify that next purchase. (Glad I could help.)
The Meadowlarks swing in a way my Sophias don’t, and are especially pleasing with well-defined sources like the CLONES PA-1. A brilliant Goldilocks pairing. So what if the Meadowlarks are telling sweet lies? It works, and a detail-guy like me doesn’t feel short-changed.
When you start with the truth as your source, you can embellish it downstream if you wish, but if your source is telling lies at the beginning, no matter how you try to compensate with a “brighter” or “warmer” component, you’ll never get the straight story.
To my mind, that is the foremost accomplishment of Funjoe’s CLONES PA-1. He’s setting you off on a truthful path, resolving and SMOOTH, something few solid state phono preamplifiers anywhere near the investment can pull off. Almost all I have heard within $500 of this price point have some grain or etch. On the tube side within the same $500 margin, I usually hear too much goo. I swear I once saw bees fly out of one very temporary visitor in my audio rack.
The CLONES PA-1 delivered on modern era recordings, too—Sun Kill Moon’s Benji, 2014, Caldo Verde Records, and Run the Jewels “2” on Mass Appeal Records—but it was especially haunting and magical with Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald and Louie Armstrong (Ella & Louie Again, a 180 gram reissue by Wax Time Records of the 1956 classic) as well as Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker’s 1974 Carnegie Hall Concert on CTI Records.
The CLONES PA-1 is nimble enough to handle all kinds of orchestral complexity but presented those older jazz recordings with a riveting dignity, air and coolness. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Miles Davis had walked in wearing shades. I could almost smell stale cigar smoke in the room. Or maybe Gus the Wonder Pug needs a bath.
The CLONES PA-1 approach puts you in the audience near the front. Some rarefied components, when combined with the right recording, can put you on stage near Dizzy Gillespie’s spit valve. But we’re talking about the difference between Lamborghinis and Corvettes.
I found it interesting that I was so drawn to so many older recordings, and thought about why for quite some time. What sounded so right? I think that part of the charm was an upper midrange openness, with all it’s revelations, from Mose Allison to Billy Holiday to the Cars, that no phono preamp in my experience had delivered so well while maintaining exceptional balance across the audio spectrum.
If you are just getting back into the vinyl game or simply looking to improve your game, the CLONES PA-1 gives you an excellent platform from which to build. It should rise to the occasion with future turntable and cartridge upgrades gracefully until you buy or steal the Lamborghini. Then again, a ‘Vette will keep most people happy forever.
At this price point there are far more misses than hits on the market. In any number of solid state phono preamps, reasonable accuracy can be expected. The gift of the CLONES PA-1—and for $850, it is a gift—is it’s ability to reproduce tone, the resonance of wood instruments, brushes on a snare—life itself, uncolored but vivid.
If you are going to budget anywhere near $500 either side of $850, you need to seriously consider the CLONES PA-1. If you are budgeting under that price, reconsider. By the time you churn through the pretenders, you’ll have wasted time and money. The CLONES PA-1 is an immense value. Even if you have more money to burn, if you want Dizzy’s spit valve dripping on your Sketchers, you are headed into two grand territory.
After a couple of weeks of digging deep into the archives, I was destined to revisit Al Stewart’s 1974 masterpiece, Year of the Cat, on a 180 gram Friday Music pressing to see if one of the albums that launched my audio journey still held magic for me. It did.
Stewart’s meticulous, composed, artful style and Alan Parson’s production took me back. After two weeks, although break-in was certainly not complete (time is always your friend with new gear), I realized I had stopped listening to the CLONES PA-1 and just started to listen to the music.
I don’t know if 2015 is the Year of the Cat, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t the Year of the CLONES..
CLONES Audio PA-1: $900
CONTACT: Mark Sossa
Well Pleased AV
6484 Seventh St.
Alexandria, VA 22312
703-750-5461
servingthemusic.com 
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