The Best Integrated Amplifiers for a Turntable

Buying an amplifier with a phono stage built in removes a box, a pair of interconnects and a purchase decision. It is, for most vinyl systems, exactly the right move.

The trouble is that “has a phono input” is a binary that hides a very large range. A phono stage is a high-gain, RIAA-equalized circuit amplifying a signal of a few thousandths of a volt — the most demanding small-signal job in the whole amplifier — and manufacturers publish wildly different amounts about it. This page ranks on what they publish about the phono stage specifically, not on wattage. Wattage is the subject of our main amplifier roundup.

What every phono stage should publish, and who does

Not one of these publishes an RIAA deviation figure. That is the specification that tells you how accurately the stage undoes the equalization curve applied at the cutting lathe, and it is the closest thing to a fidelity measurement a phono stage has. For context, Marantz doespublish it on the Cinema 70s AV receiver — ±1 dB from 20 Hz to 20 kHz — so the number exists in their engineering department. It simply does not appear on the integrated amplifier’s sheet.

What input sensitivity actually tells you

The MM sensitivity figure is the input voltage that produces the amplifier’s rated output. Lower means more gain.

The Marantz’s 2.2 mV means it needs less signal than the Yamaha’s 3.0 mV to reach the same level — roughly 2.7 dB more gain. With a cartridge like the Audio-Technica AT-VM95ML at 3.5 mV both are comfortable. With a lower-output cartridge, the extra gain starts to matter.

All of them specify a 47 kΩ input impedance, which is the moving-magnet standard and exactly what every cartridge in our roundup asks for. None publishes an input capacitance, which is the other half of MM loading — Audio-Technica specifies 100–200 pF and Ortofon 150–300 pF for their cartridges, and none of these amplifiers tells you what it presents. The cable contributes to that total too, which is why it is worth knowing.

Why the Marantz ranks first here

Three published reasons, in order of importance.

It publishes the highest phono gain here (2.2 mV) alongside a solid 83 dB phono signal-to-noise ratio. It publishes a 4-ohm power rating — 60 W × 2 into 4 Ω across 20 Hz–20 kHz with both channels driven — which is the honest way to do it, and which Yamaha does not do for either of its amplifiers here. And it publishes a damping factor of 100 measured across 40 Hz–20 kHz, a stated band rather than a bare number.

It is also the most expensive amplifier in this group, and if your speakers are an easy 8-ohm load the Yamaha A-S501’s 85 W into 8 Ω at 0.019% THD is a stronger 8-ohm specification. This ranking is about the phono stage; the general-purpose ranking is on the main roundup, and the Yamaha wins there.

The Denon’s 4-ohm asterisk

Denon publishes 45 W + 45 W into 8 Ω measured 20 Hz–20 kHz at 0.07% THD, and 70 W + 70 W into 4 Ω — but the 4-ohm figure is measured at 1 kHz at 0.7% THD.

That is a much softer test. A single frequency instead of the full band, and ten times the allowable distortion. The 70 W number is not wrong, but it was not earned under the same conditions as the 45 W number, and reading them as a straightforward “more power into 4 ohms” comparison overstates what the amplifier does.

Denon deserves credit for publishing a 4-ohm figure at all — Yamaha publishes none, and Cambridge publishes none. Publishing a softened figure is more useful than publishing nothing, provided you read the condition.

The Cambridge case: a good amplifier with a quiet spec sheet

Cambridge publishes a built-in moving magnet phono stage on the AXA35, 35 W into 8 Ω, THD below 0.01% at 1 kHz, a signal-to-noise ratio above 82 dB unweighted, and a damping factor above 50.

What it does not publish is any phono-specific figure at all: no input sensitivity, no separate phono signal-to-noise, no loading. So you know the stage exists and nothing else. It also has no digital inputs, which at this price is a real omission when the Marantz and Denon both include optical and coaxial.

It is the simplest amplifier here and the one with the fewest ways to go wrong. On our published-data criterion it ranks fourth because of what is missing from the sheet, not because of anything we know about the circuit.

The Sony, and why it is last

The STR-DH190 is a stereo receiver with a phono input and a reputation as a bargain. We rank it last for one reason: we cannot read its specifications.

Sony blocks automated access across every domain it operates, and the official manual returned an error when we tried to read it. The manual is mirrored on third-party sites, but a mirror is not the manufacturer and we do not treat it as one. So we publish nothing rather than something we could not verify at source.

That is not a claim that the amplifier is bad. It is a statement about what we could confirm, and it is the rule this site operates by, applied even when it costs a popular product its place.

Do you actually need one?

Not if your turntable has a built-in stage — most decks in the under-$300 bracket do. In that case any amplifier with a line input works, and the money is better spent on watts or on the cartridge.

Do need one if your deck omits a stage. The Fluance RT85and the Pro-Ject Debut Carbon EVO both do, deliberately, and Pro-Ject’s datasheet actively recommends a separate stage. In that case an amplifier with a phono input saves a box — or you buy a dedicated stage, which will publish more than any of these do.

How we would choose

For a vinyl-first system with speakers that dip below 8 ohms: the Marantz PM6007, for the phono gain and the honestly-measured 4-ohm rating.

For an easy 8-ohm speaker load and the most power for the money: the Yamaha A-S501, with the caveat that its 4-ohm behavior is unpublished. For Bluetooth as well as vinyl, the Denon PMA-600NE. And if you already own a phono stage you like, ignore this page — buy on power and run the speaker-matching arithmetic instead.