Music Hall Mini MM Phono Preamplifier - Black

The Music Hall Mini — A Real Phono Stage, Built in the USA, for Under a Hundred Dollars

Plenty of amplifiers made in the last thirty years have no phono input at all. The Mini solves that for $89. It is 3.25 inches wide, weighs a pound, and puts 42 dB of RIAA-correct gain between your turntable and any spare line input you have.

Music Hall assembles it in the United States inside a steel case. Steel is the unglamorous choice and the right one here — it shields a low-level circuit from the wall warts, routers and dimmers that surround most equipment racks, which is usually where hum starts.

What You Get for Eighty-Nine Dollars

Gain and Loading

Amplification is 42 dB at 1 kHz, with the input fixed at 47 kΩ and 120 pF. A 5 mV cartridge produces 635 mV out, which is a normal line level. Moving magnet and high-output moving coil cartridges both work. A true low-output moving coil does not, and will sound thin however far you turn the volume up.

How Clean It Is

Frequency response tracks the RIAA curve within ±0.5 dB from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Distortion measures 0.01 percent at 1 kHz and the unweighted signal-to-noise ratio is better than 83 dB. Those are figures you would have paid several times as much for a decade ago.

The Second Output

Alongside the RCA pair there is a 3.5 mm stereo output. That matters more than it sounds: it lets the Mini feed powered desktop speakers, a soundbar or a computer input directly, with no adapter cable in the path.

Who Is the Music Hall Mini Best For?

• Anyone with a receiver or integrated amplifier built without a phono input, who wants the turntable working tonight for less than the cost of a couple of records.
• Second and third systems — a bedroom, an office, a workshop. At 3.25 x 2 x 1.5 inches it disappears behind almost anything.
• Desktop setups running powered speakers. The 3.5 mm output connects straight to them, so no adapter or converter sits in the signal path.
• Buyers who care where a thing is made. Music Hall builds the Mini in the United States, which at this price is genuinely unusual.
• Not for anyone who wants to tune the load to their cartridge — the Mini is fixed at 47 kΩ and 120 pF with no switches at all. The Music Hall Mini Plus adds selectable capacitance and a gain control for $60 more.

How Does It Connect?

Turntable into the RCA inputs, ground wire to the ground post if your turntable has one, then RCA or 3.5 mm out to a free line input. Aux, CD, tape and tuner inputs all work; the only input that will not is another phono input.

Power comes from an external supply running anywhere between 9 and 15 volts DC. There is nothing to set and nothing to adjust, which is rather the point of a stage in this class. Connect it and play a record.

Pairs Well With

Three small additions make more difference here than another $89 of phono stage would:

• A fresh stylus — a worn tip costs you more detail than any electronics upgrade at this price can return.
• A record brush and cleaning fluid — surface noise is the loudest thing on most used records, and it is removable.
• A turntable mat or isolation feet — footfall and speaker energy reach the stylus through the plinth long before they reach the electronics.
• A better moving magnet cartridge — 42 dB and 47 kΩ suit almost every one made.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will it work with my cartridge?

Moving magnet and high-output moving coil cartridges are both fine. A genuine low-output moving coil, of a few tenths of a millivolt, needs far more than 42 dB and will sound thin and quiet through the Mini.

What can I plug the output into?

Any line-level input on an amplifier, receiver, powered speaker or computer interface. Use the RCA pair for a conventional system and the 3.5 mm jack for desktop speakers. Avoid plugging it into another phono input.

Does it come with a power supply?

An external supply is included. The Mini accepts anywhere from 9 to 15 volts DC, so the unit is tolerant of what feeds it — useful if a supply ever goes missing during a system rearrangement.

Is there a ground connection?

There is. Most turntables carry a separate thin ground wire, and connecting it to the post on the Mini removes the hum that otherwise appears. If your turntable has no ground wire, leave the post empty.

How does it compare with a phono input built into an amplifier?

Built-in phono stages vary enormously. On a modern receiver the internal stage is often a single chip sharing a board with everything else, and a separate box with its own case and its own supply tends to be the quieter of the two.

Where is it made?

The United States. Music Hall builds the Mini domestically in a steel chassis, and says so plainly — which at this price point is worth knowing, because very little else in the category can make the same claim.

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Learn More

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