EDWARDS AUDIO MC-1

In the recent July 2009 issue of Hi-Fi News the MC1 was awarded the Outstanding Product award for representing the pinnacle of sound at the price.  

 â€œI compared the MC1 directly with a highly regarded Graham Slee Gram Amp 3 'Fanfare' MC phono stage priced just £17 less. Within just a few bars of music I was bowled over by the MCI, it being immediately apparent that it was a 'class act'.”  JB HFN July 2009. The MC1 Phono stage from Edwards Audio looks like becoming something of a reference at £250

Born from the many years experience of development done by the founder and managing director of Talk Electronics, Kevin Edwards. The aim has been to develop and manufacture a range of products to the same exacting standards that exist for the award winning Talk brand but at very affordable prices without resorting to Chinese based design or manufacturing and the usual loss of control that that entails. These are truly British designed and manufactured products.

The MC1 is our entry level moving coil and moving magnet RIAA phono stage. It is unique at the price, with its’ fully RoHs compliant gold plated custom made double sided PCB’s ,natural anodised extruded aluminium case and high quality internal parts, as used by Talk Electronics. It also benefits form Talk Electronics’ buying power with it’s use of 1% metal film resistors plus Wima and Vishay polypropylene film capacitors throughout. The RIAA. Equilisation accuracy is within 0.5dB across the audio band and signal to noise is very low at -65dB. The circuit topology has a fully discrete input gain stage followed by our unique active/passive RIAA filter followed by a totally buffered output section with a very low output impedance to reduce cable effects and improve output current and drive. It will easily drive a 600 Ohm load!!

Attention to detail also extends to the custom made plug top power supply, the PSU which is unique in its use of a split rail design using + and - DC power outputs for maximum rejection of RF noise, maximum dynamic range and overload margin. It also uses a gold plated custom made PCB with high quality diodes and snubber caps. This is no normal ‘off the shelf’ PSU as used by the competition.

Traditional Talk styling and performance requirements have not been overlooked either with illuminated metal etched badges and opal white front and rear panels as standard. This is the best built and most aesthetic phono stage in it’s class but it dosn’t stop there it also delivers in the sound department as well, with expansive and detailed sound staging, normally associated with more expensive phono stages. It is also upgradable through the use of a dedicated PSU2 Power supply

Specifications.
Max Input MC ..................................................................................6mV
Nominal Input ..........................................................................0.1-1mV
Gain...............................................................................................56dB
THD Distortion ......................................................................<0.02% 1kHz
Stereo separation better than ........................................................................65dB - 20-20kHz
Input Loading MC ..........................................................100R with 120pF
Output impedance ................................................................<10 Ohms
Nominal output...............................................................65mV - 650mV
Dimensions WxHxL.....................................114.5mm x 47.5mm x 160mm
Weight............................................................................................0.5kg
Power consumption (Max).................................................................................3.5W