I attempted a simpler designed MM stage I had never built before but didn’t like what I heard. Then constructed a modified La Pacific build to dropped into the cast Al enclosure to replace the bad sounding original. This proved a great success and now I have a Mimic opamp based phono stage and a La Pacific. I only just read where the La Pacific was design by Jean Hiraga. I have built one of his 5W power amps using cct. brds. from Croatia.
Wiring is with very fine silver plated copper wire and WBT silver based solder used throughout. Two 9V batteries internally power the very compact cct. brd which is vera-board. I built many different audio devices on vera-board and find it easy to work with and very inexpensive. Caps are mostly MKTs with four NP electronics for storage and one larger cap for power stability. Resistors are all metal film including some Vishay Rs. RCAs are heavy duty brass and gold plate.
An external battery test point is at the front and earth terminal on the rear. Battery life should be around 50 hours. Cheap Lithium batteries will last twice as long. Sound is open and clear. Presentation is fast, bright with good transparency. I found it sounded better with classical music than jazz or rock or pop. In your system you might view it differently. Overall very pleased with such an inexpensive build.
