The fact that Keces now also offers the three higher values, of which I have sorely missed at least the first two with the Ephono, makes any kind of restriction in the selection of cartridges a thing of the past. According to the rule of thumb for defining the terminating impedance – internal resistance of the cartridge times ten to twenty – the Ephono had excluded almost every pickup with an impedance of more than 20 ohms. In addition, that test also showed that the more one approaches the upper factor, the more threedimensional the Ephono performs. For both the MM and the MC inputs, the gain can be increased by six decibels per toggle switch on the front panel so that a maximum of 46 and 66 decibels respectively can be adjusted. A third switch allows for activating a subsonic filter, while the fourth toggle switch offers the possibility of selecting between the RIAA and IEC equalization characteristics. The maximum deviation from the set curve indicates Keces at 0.2 decibels. The RCA jacks as well as the XLR outputs present themselves gold-plated, which one rather may expect in this price range just like "resistors and capacitors in audiophile quality", which Keces mentions in their product information.

The good experiences gathered with the Ephono have probably made me somewhat presumptuous: I allowed the 700-euro phono stage to migrate systems from the living room to the listening room, in order to evaluate the differences between the two Keces products easier using the other, even higher resolving system. Let's then get started with the Ephono. Compared to Einstein's The Turntable's Choice – which, thanks to the fully balanced circuit design, is almost as hum-and-noise-free as a line input without an upstream phono stage – It is noticeable that the incredibly favourably priced Keces comes up with a very slight noise when the tonearm is raised – and, I must say, with the volume turned up to my preferred levels. Of course, this is completely masked by the drive noises of the stylus in the groove and is immediately forgotten when the first tones start playing: It's not about floodlighting the last centimeters of the stage or giving the instruments a little more air around them. Having the Ephone taking care of the equalization job makes listening to music a fun and sets emotions free. Of course, in an audio system where most of the power cords are more expensive than the Ephono itself, you can easily tell where the phono amp is reaching its limits. The Einstein for instance charms with more space, timbre and detail, while the "little" Keces very much focuses on the essentials: It makes any kind of music simply a pleasure – and does aurally nothing wrong. There is no frequency range over-emphasized, there is no compression effect – without having a comparison with much more expensive phono preamps, you won’t miss anything.

However, my contentment only lasts until the phono stage of Keces' Superior Series comes into play. The Sphono performs a bit even more dynamic and open, provides a little larger imaging and suggests a much wider and deeper stage. Yes, the new, "big" phono preamp is not only superior regarding the aforementioned single criteria, it just makes the music address the listener in a much more direct way. And that applies to LSC and ECM records as well as to Einstein's The Pickup in an SME V, and Transrotor’s Tamino in The Tonearm respectively. The Tamino I terminate with 56 ohms, while The Pickup, for which 130 to 300 ohms are recommended, is loaded with 220 ohms. Next I try 470 and 1200 ohms in parallel, thus resulting in almost 338 ohms. In this way, The Pickup renders the first movement of the "Concierto Andaluz", a reissue of the Philips 9500 563, even more captivating: The sound stage seems a bit larger, the play of the four guitarists and the orchestra offers more rhythmic finesse, and the instrument groups are surrounded by more airiness. As with the Ephono, in case of doubt the higher terminating impedance is also the better choice for the phono amp of the S series. Good to know that the Sphono offers the freedom of choice.