Michell Apollo & Muse interview with Jonathan Nye
At the Bristol Hi-Fi Show in February this year Michell launched the Apollo and Muse phono stage and power supply, we took the opportunity to talk with Michell MD Jonathan Nye (below) about the new electronics to find out more.
The Ear: It’s been quite a long time since the Iso. Was that the last Michelle phono stage?
JN: The Delphini was the last phono stage back in the ‘90s. Not long after the Delphini, we stopped producing electronics, except power supplies for our turntables.
The Ear: What made you think now was the time to get back into phono stages?
JN: We make turntables, tonearms, and cartridges, and phono stages are the next logical step.
The Ear : When did cartridges come along?
JN: It was five or six years ago, pre-pandemic.
The Ear: Why is a phono stage the next logical step for Michell?
JN: OK, a good turntable, arm and cartridge combo can extract really stunning levels of detail from vinyl, but if you don’t maintain that signal and amplify it properly, then a lot of that good work can be lost. So that’s the thinking and the philosophy behind it. I’m not saying phono stages are overlooked, but some people don’t appreciate how important that piece of kit is.
The Ear: Probably the most important amplification in any vinyl system.
JN: You need a phono stage that can amplify the tiny cartridge voltages without distortion and keep noise out of the system. Noise has the biggest detrimental effect on that tiny signal. Then, the equalization circuit, the RIAA curve, needs to be spot on. It needs to be finely tuned so the signal is correctly rectified. Otherwise, you’re introducing elements that weren’t there.
The Ear: It resembles the last Trichord phono stage (Neo/CM-PSU) that didn’t actually go into production. Are the Apollo and Muse based on that?
JN: It’s no secret we have worked with Trichord for many years, and they have always been consulted when we develop electronics. Apollo looks like those earlier units because that was the pinnacle of Trichord designs at the time we began to develop ours. The circuit design is different; we use higher quality components and basically took everything to the next level.
The Ear: It’s a lovely bit of casing. Having a casework like this must significantly impact the cost. Is it really beneficial to have a machined rather than a fabricated case?
JN: We found that because they’re little units, you need a bit of weight as you need some mass to stop the thing resonating. You also need to create a Faraday cage effect. So, if you look, there’s a little ridge machined into the joint between the two halves, and it all fits together.
The Ear: So there’s no gasket or anything between the two halves?
JN: Metal on metal. We then use the screws to create that cage effect. And the little cover on the bottom that’s not there just for aesthetics. That’s there to maintain the cage. We even manufacture the little brass screw that holds the cover on, we don’t buy it in. We make premium products, so it’s got to feel like one.
The Ear: Who did the industrial design, the badge and this waffle pattern?
JN: The waffle idea was Trichord and it was too nice to leave off, we modified it for better finishing. The badge and everything else were us.
The Ear: It’s nicely done job. And you managed to get these made in the UK which I believe is not always easy.
JN: That’s one of the things we are known for, and very good at, is manufacturing in the UK. It wouldn’t be a Michell product if we made it in China. As you say, it does add cost, but done in the right way, for the right reasons, it enhances the performance as well as the aesthetic. We’re not doing it for the sake of it. You could easily put that into a bent metal enclosure, but it wouldn’t perform the same. Little things, we’ve machined the legs as part of the base, where we put a rubber foot, because that means you’ve got more solid mass there, and it’s more rigid. What we have done is purposeful; from a distance, they’re little black boxes, but when you look and feel them, you realise the enormous amount of thought that has gone into them.
The Ear: It is much easier to change the settings on than the Delphini, where you have to slide the case off to tweak the impedance or gain, but you shouldn’t be doing that every day.
JN: No, you can easily set up the units from the switches on the underside. They’re more of a set-and-forget kind of thing. But we give you the essential settings that you need to use them with almost any cartridge.
The Ear: There’s quite a wide range there though.
JN: We have all the options to cover most loadings. We also have quite a few gain settings, and have catered for the majority of good-quality cartridges.
The Ear: 73dB is quite a lot of gain.
JN: It is, but it is useful when you have a really low-output cartridge. We’ve left off certain features that you can find on other phono stages, like rumble filters. We weighed up the pros and cons and decided they ultimately lessened performance, increased cost, and were not used in most situations.
The Ear: Some people claim that they can be done quite well.
JN: I don’t doubt it, but when you’ve gone through these pains to get the circuitry right, you get really great performance at the price point. Those features didn’t make it sound any better for most situations. Remember, all these added features cost the consumer with either a higher price or lower performance.
The Ear: No mono switch either, which is also a bit of a novelty these days.
JN: If you want to switch to mono, the best thing is to get yourself a mono cartridge. You will sit there and go, wow.
The Ear: What can you tell me about the Muse power supply?
JN: It’s based on a toroidal transformer, with two independent capacitance multiplier circuits, so a bank of capacitors filters the supply. We put really good voltage regulators in there, but the Apollo and Muse are designed as a system so that when you get into the phono stage, there’s another power supply which further refines the signal and drops the voltage again.
The Ear: Is this a regulator type of thing?
JN: Yes, the two units work together, they sync up and work in harmony. It is a system rather than a power supply and an amplifier.
The Ear: So there’s not likely to be a power supply upgrade option, for instance?
JN: Possibly because we can still take that further, but there may be other options to upgrade things later.
The Ear: The cable is not a standard piece of wire I believe.
JN: It is not. If you don’t maintain the integrity of the power supply going into the amplifier, you’ve just nobbled yourself. So, we co-engineered the cable with the world’s leading cable manufacturer, the Chord Company. We went to them and said this is what we needed to do, can you give us some insight into what you think would be needed? And they were extremely helpful. It’s a high-quality, audio-grade power cable. We could have just bought an off the shelf cable and made it up ourselves. But we’re not an off the shelf type of company. We like to try and make it and control what’s going on. So the cable is specifically designed for DC power transfer.
There are lots of things in there you’ll find in a really high-quality audio interconnector. But obviously, the signal is completely different. So it’s not like you can just buy an audio cable to do the job. It has a five-pin XLR connector that clicks in with high-pressure contacts and Chord’s Choralloy coating on it.
The Ear: When do you hope to get the Apollo and Muse to market?
JN: We will start shipping the first ones in March.
The Ear: Great stuff Jonathan, we’ll look forward to trying it.