EAT E-Glo Petit II

Introduction

Heard of EAT? The European Audio Team? You will. The company was founded by Jozefina Lichtenegger in the late 1990s, who captures the whole essence of HiFi when she says;

Music is why we are here. Everything is music and music is everything.

Couldn’t agree more.

There are some very lovely analogue products emerging from EAT, including massive turntables with concrete plinths (the C Dur that was at Ascot last year), cartridges and a selection of tube-based amplifiers and phono stages; in fact, some of E.A.T earliest products were triode vacuum tubes.

Design

The EAT E-Glo Petit II is an iteration of the previous Petit, and it is a phono stage with a huge amount of flexibility on the input settings side. This allows the Petit II to cater for a variety of cartridges, be they ultra-sensitive moving coil or leaner moving magnet cartridges.

The EAT E-Glo Petit II uses the standard RIAA curve that tilts the frequency curve in recording and playback. The Petit II uses a hybrid tube design with transistors and two 12AX7 tubes in a discrete design that obviates OpAmps inside, contributing to the significant gain on offer in the device.

The input impedances are 10, 18, 43, 75, 150, 300, 600, 1200 Ohms and 30, 36, 42, 47, 53, 59, 65, 75 kOhms. This is a huge amount of flexibility as is the load capacity that can be 50, 150, 270, 370, 520, or 620 pF. Gain can be set to 40, 45, 50, 60, 65, 70 dB.

You have a significant degree of flexibility at this price as you adjust your system for cartridge choice, brightness, and other factors.

There is also a subsonic filter set below 20Hz that toggles on or off if needed. This is designed to attenuate low-level radio frequency interference and turntable rumble, if they are a factor, and to generally clean up the presentation.

Quality

The unit is heavy for its size; the toggle switches are delicious, and the knobs selecting the loading are similarly smooth and thoughtful. The switches for the Capacitance loading and Gain adjust up and down, and their value is shown on the front of the E-Glo Petit II in beautiful blue light dots.

Overall, the unit is very clean indeed and good looking; my black sample has a matte finish and is a fraction finger-printy. At the rear the inputs and outputs are left in-out and right in-out, I’d prefer them to be input and output as the wires can get crossed over in tighter spaces.

My only slight disappointment is that you can’t really see the tubes doing their thing (glowing, in other words) as they are recessed in the chassis. I think this is a bit of an oversight. It would be nice if the next Petit III had the same design as the bigger E-Glo II.

Specification and Price

Performance

Review Equipment

I’m using a Michell Gyro SE with the low-noise electronic power source HR PSU upgrade. I have a Rega RB330 tonearm with an Exact MM cartridge (it’s a high-midrange cartridge, really). Amplification has been predominantly with the Focal DIVA UTOPIA active loudspeakers. It’s a bit over the top, but it’s very revealing and enjoyable all around.

Physically

I found the E-Glo Petit II intuitive to set up. Having looked up my cartridge, I have the Gain set at 55dB and the Capacitance loaded at 150 pF. The impedance is set for the recommended 47kOhms. I did play with this a fraction but preferred it at 47kOhms.

Performance

Ryan Adams – Gold (Lost Highway)

My rather tired and exhausted copy of Gold is still a go-to vinyl recording when I’m listening to pieces like this. It really does need one of those pro-cleans, and I must remember to take it to the Bristol Show to get “that guy” to clean it properly. Nonetheless, the output is delicious and reminds me why this is one of my top five albums ever! The Petit II presents this recording well in this revealing and lively active system.

Malcolm McClaren and the Bootzilla Orchestra – Waltz Darling (EPIC)

…the rhythm is the key, and the E-Glo Petit II is on point throughout.

Another goto album for rhythm, pace and energy.  This album has orchestral and pop themes that were released at the height of Malcolm McClaren’s creativity (1989, I bought this album copy in Cork, of all places).  Here, the rhythm is the key, and the E-Glo Petit II is on point throughout.

Paul Simon – Graceland (Sony Music)

The richness of the phono stage … easily outshines a Qobuz streamed comparison back-to-back.

With this phono stage and these incredible speakers, this album goes to a different place. The richness of the phono stage and the weight of the drums in Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes are a real treat, and they easily outshine a Qobuz streamed comparison back-to-back.

Subsonic Filter

There is a subsonic filter… to clean up the overall presentation.

There is a subsonic filter, I gather, to clean up the overall presentation.  I felt I was not getting much from this filter option. I wonder if it concerns my turntable setup, which is the Michell Gyro SE with the isolated motor separate from the main chassis.  I also have the PSU HR upgrade for it, so my motor is very low noise.  Since the subsonic filter is dealing less than 20Hz, I’m guessing there is not much for it to do, despite it being in between two huge 70 kilo active loudspeakers with all the RF in the world??

Overall

…an analogue investment with all the flexibility in the world, allowing for future cartridge upgrades

This feels like an analogue investment with all the flexibility in the world, allowing for future cartridge upgrades as you progress along the audiophile journey. At this price and this amount of flexibility in a smaller footprint, it is a bit of a winner, in my view.