In search of lost sound

On the front page of its owner's manual, Greek amplifier manufacturer Lab12 describes the Melto2 ($4995) as a “Remote Controlled, Fully Adjustable Phono Preamplifier.” I'd describe it as a clear-speaking, fun-to-use, cartridge- and record-collector's dream. Plus: It's got tubes.

- BY HERB REICHERT

Apart from delivering an uncanny level of silence and transparency, the #1 special thing Lab12's tube phono stage can do is allow users to fine-tune resistance, capacitance, and gain to create maximally effective loads for both moving coil and moving magnet cartridges. These diverse capabilities allowed me to coax maximum performance out of the widest possible range of phono cartridges. Which makes it just the kind of phono equalizer I've been looking for.

The front panel of the Melto2 reads as both timeless and price defiant. It looks neither expensive nor cheap but rather well-built and sensible, in audio's middle range.

On the left side of the front panel is a knob labeled “Navigation,” which operates the Melto2's menu, the doorway to its operating system. It's the first audio-component menu that made me look forward to using it.

The menu starts by asking the user to choose one of the Melto2's three RCA inputs. Then it prompts them to select cartridge type—MC or MM—then Gain, High (58/64dB) or Low (38dB). The user is then prompted to choose an equalization curve: Columbia, Decca, or RIAA. The next step (for a moving magnet cartridge) is setting capacitance—Low, 100pF, 200pF, or 300pF—and impedance (resistance): 12.5k, 13k, 14k, 17k, 25k, 27k, 30k, 32k, 36k, 40k, and 47k ohms. (This, to me, is a high-value feature.) For moving coils, there's the high-gain impedance (resistance): 25, 27, 34, 40, 60, 66, 73, 79, 88, and 100 ohms, plus High. Notice how many choices there are below 100 ohms. The choices for MC loads at Low Gain are 100, 110, 135, 165, 240, 265, 300, 315, 350, and 400 ohms, plus High Impedance. Notice how subtly you can adjust above 100 ohms.

That's what I mean by “fine tuning.”

The Melto2 owner's manual states, “When MC setting is selected, Lundahl step up transformers take care of the low-level MC signal before the tube and equalizer stages. When MM setting is selected, Lundahl transformers are totally bypassed.”