This is a measurement of Parks Audio DSP- based PUffin Phono amplifier. Yes, you read that right: it uses a DSP for implement RIAA curves and many, many other functions. It was kindly loaned to me in person to test our meet at friendly audio shop, Gig Harbor Audio . The unit retails for USD $399 including Prime shipping on Amazon.Here is a quick shot of the unit while being tested with very dim light with my mobile phone:The company is apparently well-known for its tube based phono stage. So imagine the shock and horror of its customer base when they heard that not only had he dispensed with tubes, but that the unit digitizes audio, processes it, and converts it back to analog. Sacrilegious! Quick search shows long threads of riots in street, folks feeling abandoned, going to psychiatrists and being asked about their childhood, etc.Fortunately we are much more enlightened here.It is my firm belief that when LP sounds better, it is because it is mastered differently, not because it is analog and there is some magic there that is missing in digital.The unit has boatload of parameters that can be changed through its LCD display. I did not try to navigate it and let the user do that.In the interest of time, I asked its owner of one to set it to how he uses it. He programmed it as you see above with the gain of 52 dB.Let's see how she measures.I only had time for one measurement which is my dashboard. I don't have canned templates for phono stages so pulled up the one for headphone amps, not realizing that the load is very low, 600 Ohm (low for phono stages/pre-amps, not headphone amps). So the distortion is likely higher than it would be with the typical 100 K ohm load I would normally use:The first harmonic distortion is at a (good) -90 dB relative to our signal level. The reason SINAD is much worse is due to high level of low frequency noise. It is not distortion limited.I don't have enough data to jude based on 52 dB of gain but just putting a wet thumb in the air, it seems to be very good performance given that massive amplification.Based on this limited data, the Parks Audio Pluto seems to have good performance. Unlikely some of its customer base, I don't see any issue with digital processing to provide a much more flexible system with more accuracy.-------------As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.If you like this review, please considerfunds to support these reviews using:or https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054 ).