The PhonoARAY was conceived to improve the playback of turntables, although it can be used successfully in a variety of earthing applications within an audio system. Turntables can be earthed to the phono stage or phono amp input, whilst providing maximum protection for the highly sensitive signal.

Inside the PhonoARAY is a hand-wound, ultra-high-current series filter, joining both terminals, as well as a complex ARAY system, connected in parallel, that gives added sound security and also provides an effective double “virtual earth system” for both the turntable and phono stage.

Connections on the PhonoARAY are via two high-quality 4mm speaker-style terminals, accepting 4mm ‘banana’ and spade connections.

The PhonoARAY connects the earth terminal of the turntable (or tonearm) to the earth terminal of the phono stage (or amplifier phono input) and is supplied with a dedicated 50cm screened earth cable (4mm to spade connector) to be used between the PhonoARAY and the phono input earth.

The PhonoARAY is housed in a thick-walled machined aluminium billet to provide good electrical and acoustic isolation. The PhonoARAY chamber has been resin-filled to reduce microphony, which is when mechanical vibrations are transformed into an undesired electrical signal/noise.

The casing rests on two extremely lightweight, decoupled isolation feet to further reduce microphony. The feet fixing bolts should be loosened before installation to allow full decoupling.

Why did we create the PhonoARAY?

A turntable/record deck remains one of the highest-quality and most rewarding methods of accessing music at home, and is often one of several sources (analogue and digital) connected to the same hi-fi system.

The signal from vinyl record grooves is tiny! For example, the output from a moving coil cartridge is typically amplified 1,000,000 times before it reaches the loudspeakers. The engineering needed to retrieve this delicate sound can make turntables sensitive to electromagnetic radiation/interference.

We have years of experience, minimising the impact of external interference on the operation of audio systems, initially via advanced shielding technology and in recent years with the development of products including the GroundARAY, PowerARAY, PowerARAY Professional and PowerHAUS mains distribution blocks.

These devices operate in parallel to avoid introducing filters into the signal path, however because many turntables need to be grounded to the phono amplifier/phono stage, this connection can provide a pathway for interference from the turntable into the rest of the playback system and vice versa, so we had to come up with something slightly different…