Overview
At £500, the SPARTAN 12 carries the triple-stage topology of the PRO series into a smaller form factor with a simplified feature set. With noise-suppressing active loading on the front end, a 50dB gain setting for high-output moving coil cartridges and the same equaliser used in the LO PRO, it represents a version of the MM PRO design more suited to simpler setups using RCA connections.
Standard black SPARTAN 12, frontal view
This state-of-the-art design fully embraces surface-mount technology, using next-generation NJM8068 input amplifiers in the flat-gain input amplifier that makes up the first stage. Their balance of voltage and current noise is perfectly optimised for the impedance characteristics of typical MM cartridges. Active loading tackles the noise contribution of the cartridge-loading resistance to match the market-beating 79dB SNR figure delivered by the MM PRO with a real cartridge connected. For HOMC, voltage noise alone remains low enough to yield a very respectable 76dB against a 2mV 200Ω cartridge.
Surface-mount PCB, using new ICs
The RIAA equaliser amplifier in the intermediate second stage uses the same components as the new LO PRO moving coil design, leveraging high-stability C0G capacitors and helical thin-film resistors. As they are doubled up in dual-parallel combinations, their tight 1% tolerances are further averaged out to hold the SPARTAN 12s RIAA compliance comfortably within the conservatively rated ±0.1dB official figure, resulting in zero audible colouration.
Tripled arrays of ceramic capacitors in the subsonic filter maintain the strict RIAA accuracy all the way down to 35Hz, passing the cut-off point of 20.5Hz to attenuate the inevitable surface disturbances of vinyl by a factor of 10 in the 10Hz danger zone of arm-cartridge resonances. As the final 6dB of gain is applied after the subsonic filter, the excellent overload margin of 24.5dB runs all the way down from 27kHz to well under 20Hz. In addition to the 42/50dB gain switch for HOMC level matching, dual-setting low-frequency cross-feed and mono-summing switches are neatly bridged into the filter network.
Rear view, showing RCA connections
The third and final stage employs an uprated version of the tried-and-true NE5532 amplifiers used in the PRO series. Tripled pairs of ceramic capacitors in the subsonic filter
Frontal view on black background
Final text.
Specification
| Parameter | Measurement |
|---|---|
| Gain at 1kHz, 10kΩ line load | 42dB (125x), or 50dB (316x) |
| RIAA accuracy | ±0.1dB, 35Hz to 25kHz |
| Channel balance | ±0.1dB, at 1kHz |
| Crosstalk | <72dB 20Hz to 22kHz |
| SNR, 5mV MM, 500mH + 600Ω | 79dB, 220Hz to 22kHz |
| Overload margin, MM | 24.5dB (16.8x), ref 5mV at 1kHz |
| SNR, 2mV HOMC, 200Ω | 76dB, 220Hz to 22kHz |
| Overload margin, HOMC | 24.3dB (16.5x), ref 2mV at 1kHz |
| Maximum input at 1kHz | 94mV RMS MM, 8.5mV RMS MC |
| Maximum input at 10kHz | 450mV RMS MM, 41mV RMS MC |
| Maximum output, 3kΩ line load | 10.5V RMS, 20Hz to 27kHz |
| THD, 10.5V RMS output | <0.001%, 20Hz to 22kHz |
| Input impedance | 50kΩ + 90pF |
| Output impedance | 90Ω |
| Minimum line impedance | 1kΩ |
| Subsonic filter | 20.5Hz, 3rd order, -20dB at 10Hz |
| Low-frequency cross-feed | 100Hz or 200Hz, -9 or -13.8dB at 40Hz |
| Power consumption | 3W at full output, 0.2W powered off |
| Dimensions (W*H*D) | 172*60*130mm |
