(Review) VPI Avenger Phono Stage – A Reference Level Phono Stage

As you probably saw, we came home with a carload of gear from Capital Audiofest last fall, and among that haul was the new VPI Avenger Phono. This phono stage is so new it’s not yet commercially available, though you should start to see them available here soon. The Avenger Phono is an MC-only, Battery powered phono stage, that boasts an ultra-low noise floor and will retail for around mid-2000s U.S. Dollars. My first time hearing the Avenger was with it connected to a million-dollar system at Capital Audiofest, including 3 VPI Avenger Statement tables, Gryphon Audio Electronics, and Power amps, all played through Stenheim Ultime 2 Reference speakers. The Avenger Phono was probably the least expensive piece in the whole system, even less than the Nordost Odin cables, and the thing is, it didn’t hold anything back, I knew for sure I wanted to play with it some more at home and see how it performed in real-world listening as well.

vpi avenger phono

Unboxing and Setup:

Well, something that comes with the territory of checking out the preproduction models is that you don’t get the same elegant unboxing experience as the customers will get, but hey I have opened plenty of boxes so I’ll be okay. Setup is as simple as putting 20 AA batteries in the bottom, plugging in your phono cables, and switching it on. There is a plug for you to use an external power source if you decide you don’t want to deal with batteries, though in my testing good batteries last quite a while if you remember to turn it off when not in use. Cheaper batteries do go dead sooner but that is just how it goes with any device using cheap batteries. I would be curious to see how rechargeable lithium batteries would fare, but I am not sure if they are compatible as they can at times have slightly higher voltages.

vpi avenger phono

I connected the Avenger to both my VPI Prime and Model 1 and used a few different MC Carts to try out some different combos. I tried the ZYX EX 100, VPI Shyla, and the Ortofon Quintet Red. I also used three different sets of cables, the Synergistic Research Foundation SX, Esprit Celesta, and finally the AudioQuest Forest Phono. My example of the Avenger does not have a ground post, though I did try with a ground cable connected to the Java and Marantz directly from the turntables and noticed no difference in noise, either way, it was silent when nothing was playing unless I turned up the volume to levels I would never listen at. Production models may include a ground post, it is also possible it just isn’t needed since it is battery-powered.

Avenger Phono Sound

The Avenger Phono sounds great, all around. The curve is perfectly applied, details and transients are abundant, and tonally it stays out of the way. It is also dead silent, the background is darker than Challenger Deep. The sound stage is open and wide, with great depth as well. I compared it to my Pyxi as it is the only other MC Phono I have at the moment they are not outright comparable which I’ll get into more later. I have been noticing a trend lately in audio, at least in electronics and that is that many products are leaning toward neutral sound. There used to be a lot of “house sound” that brands had to sort of distinguish themselves, but as the days of having a stack of one brand’s gear have dissipated and people are mixing and matching what they like from different brands, having neutral gear makes pairing it much easier. The Avenger fits this model, it is very neutral, adding nothing to the music passing through it other than the curve. So let’s check out some listening samples.

Peter Cat Recording Co – “Bismillah”

This is an album I use a lot in critical listening tests and one I listened to at Capital on Mat’s Million Dollar System. I am very familiar with the music and it has a great variety of instruments, electronic parts, and vocals making it a great album to evaluate a piece of equipment on top of just being a great album. I listened to this album on the Prime with the Shyla Cart with both my Pyxi and the Avenger Phono stage to get an idea of how much better it may be than something like the Pyxi. The Pyxi isn’t really comparable in price as it is 300 bucks, but like the Avenger, I think it could cost double and people would probably still think it was a good performance for the price. So if not directly comparable, in what ways can you compare them, well one is whether or not the Avneger would be an upgrade or worth its price over something like the Pyxi. The short answer is yes, in my system, the Avenger is better in almost every way other than outright features. The Avenger is only made for MC Carts where as the Pyxi supports both MM and MC and has loading options. Now if you only use MC then that isn’t really a selling point for the Pyxi so I am only comparing the MC capabilities.

vpi avenger phono

The Avenger has more openness to it, which creates a more spacious sound stage giving more space to each instrument in the band. With the openness, you also notice more transients as they have the space to exist between notes. I think both handle vocals very well with the Avenger pulling ahead in the weight of the vocals, they seem more expressive with the Avenger. The bass and treble extension on the Avneger is great as is the control of the bass. The way records are pressed, the bass has to be compressed as you can’t really cut those grooves without them taking up a significant amount of real estate meaning much less music per disc. All Phono Stages apply the RIAA curve back to the signal to get your bass back and tone down the highs to create a balanced sound. How they go about this can change and how well it’s done can vary. The Avenger performs this task expertly as the frequency coverage for the Vinyl matches the digital version.

Pink Floyd – “The Wall” (original pressing)

I picked this album up at a records store near the PA/New Jersey border called The Vintage Vu, In a small town called Belvidere on my way back from the VPI House. We looked up record stores at some point on the way back and followed the directions to this awesome little shop. The pressing is in awesome condition, especially for the age and I think it was reasonably priced at 60 bucks, both the discs and the sleeve are in VG+ condition. I know I am in the minority of audiophiles when I say I am not a Pink Floyd fan, I like The Wall and that’s about it really. But I have to say this album is killer. It is very well recorded and mastered and having an original pressing isn’t lost on me. This album should be in everyone’s collection. Listening with the Avenger Phono made it all that much better, especially with the Shyla Cartridge. Every little detail is pulled out and accurately recreated. The choir part of “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2”, “we don’t need no education…we don’t need no thought control…”, it sounded as if the kids were here in my room. The guitar solo that follows had body and dimension with the Avenger that I wasn’t getting with the Pyxi, to this level anyway.

vpi avenger phono

Even though I am not a big fan, I can appreciate Roger Waters’ abilities and skill level as a musician. The compositions and writing are masterful. It is a front-to-back good album, and the variety of songs can really exercise a well-put-together and thought-out system. “Mother” the song after “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2”, completely changes gears both lyrically and instrumently, being a slower song about much different material, Pink’s overprotective Mother, Pink, being the character the album is about. If you didn’t know, the album is a set of stories. When you flip to side two, Goodbye Bluesky sets a dark tone, with a slow low guitar and vocals, about the Blitz in England. The Wall is one of those albums you really can’t enjoy listening to casually, to understand it lyrically and take in the music requires both a system capable of presenting it accurately and a listener who is engaged. The Avenger helps me achieve that at a level I had not gotten with previous phono stages and gives me a new appreciation of the album.

An excerpt from the ZYX EX 100 Review

The difference in sound quality between the affordable PYXI and the more expensive Avenger phono stage was not subtle and goes to show that this cartridge can take advantage of the better phono stages on the market. The Avenger is a battery-powered phono stage and it has a dead silent background. The resolution is impressive for the price point and I think it could easily compete with much higher-end phono stages. Mat was using it with the 10,000 dollar AT-MC2022 cartridge and the Avenger Statement at Capital Audiofest and it felt right at home. It was certainly up to the task of amplifying and applying the RIAA Curve to signal from the Ultimate Exceed 100. I felt as though I was certainly getting the maximum performance from the ZYX.

Hifi Chicken – ZYX EX 100 Review

Comparing the Avenger and Pyxi

I listened to the albums above back-to-back on the Avneger and the Pyxi and took notes on any differences I heard. I also played some music with different cartridges with both phono stages, like the ZYX EX 100, my Ortofon Quintet Red (my blue recently died), and the VPI Shyla. One thing I noticed about was when playing with the entry-level Quintet Red the Avenger’s advantages were not as noticeable as the system was being limited by the cart. So if you buy an Avenger as an upgrade to an entry-level phono stage and plan to keep an entry-level cart for a while, you may not notice a massive difference at first. However, just know with a capable cartridge you can get incredible sound out of it. The Avenger Phono is a clear upgrade over the Pyxi, and as I have compared other Phonos to the Pyxi such as the iFi Phono stages, it will be an upgrade over those as well. If you are upgrading your analog front end the Phono stage is an important part, I would say it and your cartridge are more important to your overall sound than even the turntable.

vpi avenger phono

Tonaly they are similar as the Pyxi is also a fairly neutral phono stage and it does a good job recreating the music from the signal given to it. The noise floor is decently low for something you plug in with a wall-wart. Sound quality wise you get more than you pay for and I think it competes with many 1000-dollar phono stages. That said, there is room to improve and the Avenger does that. They are completely different designs so it is hard to point out exactly what makes the Avenger more successful, perhaps the simplified circuitry of being solely an MC phono stage, perhaps the quality of components and chassis design, as well as the power supply being battery, meaning no AC in the system anywhere. The Avenger has a greater level of detail as well as more dimension and depth. The low end on the Avenger is tighter and the highs are smooth and open. The Pyxi does a fairly good job in the low-end as well as the high-end frequencies but the refinement of the Avenger is quite apparent.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Solid Build
  • Silent
  • Great sound quality
  • Simple to use

Associated Equipment

  • Marantz SR7009 (Preamp)
  • McIntosh MC250
  • Java Single Shot
  • VPI Prime w/ 10″ Unipivot arm
  • VPI Forever Model 1 w/ S arm
  • VPI Shyla Cart
  • ZYX Ultimate Exceed
  • Ortofon Quintet Red
  • SOTA Pyxi Phono
  • Sonus Faber Sonetto V
  • Vienna Acoustic Bach Ulitmate
  • Paradigm Defiance V8 Subwoofer
  • Synergistic Powercell 8SX
  • Synergistic Foundation SX (Full Loom)
  • Esprit Celeste Cables (Full Loom)
  • Akiko Audio Triple AC Evolution

Cons:

  • No MM Support
  • batteries can get expensive

Specs:

There are no published specs as of yet, we will update this section at a later date.

Price: TBD ±$2000.00 U.S.

Conclusion

The Avenger Phono is a great phono for what should be an incredible price. This is the kind of piece that you can put on an endgame list. Having heard it be used in a million-dollar system and not seem as though it is limiting it at all means you can continue to upgrade your system around it and not feel the need to upgrade this piece. In my much more modest system, the performance was simply wonderful. I enjoyed every minute I played records using it. The only thing I can say negatively about it is, that batteries can get pricey but if you remember to turn it off you should be able to go quite a while without needing to replace them. It would be nice to have MM support but that adds cost and complexity to the design. Simply put, I would say this may be one of the best value upgrades in the analog world, it will feel at home in a 10,000-dollar system as much as it will in a 1,000,000-dollar system.

For more information about VPI and their products click the link below:

https://www.vpiindustries.com

For those in Ohio, Sound and Vision is your Local VPI Dealer in Cleveland, Columbus and Cuyahoga Falls

https://www.soundandvisionohio.com

Disclaimer: VPI Industries supplied Hifi Chicken with a Demo copy of the Avengr Phono for the purpose of this review. VPI, nor any affiliates paid in full or in part in exchange for this review.

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