Reviews

09-21-2014 | By T. C. Holy Moly! There’s a subway running under the house!An early, para-musical reaction to the new Arion phono preamp from LuminousAudio ($6000). We’ll get back to the train, but first a disclaimer. The Arion is theresult of a collaboration between Luminous Audio’s president/owner/sous chef TimStinson and GAS Audio’s Mike Bettinger. Tim has been a personal friend for many,many years, Mike for several, and both Tim and Mike are fellow members in theRichmond Audio Society.* The Arion was heard in prototype form at a couple of RASmeetings, which I unfortunately could not attend, but I heard raves...

01-10-2016 | By Malcolm J. Gomes | Issue 83 I have come across many audiophiles who have truly splendid turntables, tone arms, and cartridges, of which cost them an arm and a leg. Nevertheless, they still may not enjoy the best that vinyl has to offer if the bottleneck in their audio arsenal is their phono preamplifier.  Read more....

By cheerfully weird happenstance, I received two world-class phono preamplifiers, pretty much right on top of each other. The first to arrive was the Arion phonostage ($6,395) from Tim Stinson of Luminous Audio. Tim Stinson was beside himself over this phono pre — he and his partner Mike Bettinger of Bettinger Audio Designh ave been working on this thing for well over a year now — and the final product was “beyond all expectations”. Heady stuff. Read the review...  

By Michael Fremer • Posted: Aug 12, 2015  • Published: Aug 11, 2015   Much to the probable consternation of Luminous Audio Technology, I’ve sat on this MM/MC preamplifier review for more than six months. I probably could have literally sat on the Luminous Audio Arion too, so solidly is it constructed, but I didn’t. Why the review delay? I wanted to be sure the $6395 Arion, from a relatively unknown, small company was reliable. Plus I was enjoying it way too much and wanted to be sure I completely understood why. Read more.....

Designed by Mike Bettinger, this Arion phono pre ($6,395) is built that way I like em. Super accurate. with my Benz cartridge and a VPI Scout, this pre does not hype the sound, it makes the best cartridge and LP sound  as open and spacious as the source. Very low noise as well. Read the review....