The Questars are destined to be the best entry-level options of the Heed modular line for vinyl reply that money can buy. Under the hood of their hefty, shielded steel chassis beats the heart of our Quasar MM/MC phono stage, conveniently divided into neatly-specialized a’ la carte portions.

The Heed Questar phono stage is available in moving magnet (MM) or moving coil (MC) configuration. The moving coil variant of the Heed Questar deploys a streamlined version of the Heed Quasar’s moving coil phono stage, eliminating the need for jumper switches by optimising the amplifier to suit the 300-600 µV/100 Ohm output range characterising the vast majority of today’s moving coils. Considering its generous 18 dB headroom, ideal cartridge matching is virtually assured.

The internal construction of the Heed Questar MM or MC phono stage meets the most critical high-end standards in every respect. The amplifier employs an entirely dual-mono configuration and uses a two-stage – passive/active – RIAA equalisation. Gain adjustment has been optimised for maximum headroom and highest signal-to-noise ratio. Component parts are selected to exacting tolerances matching those of our Quasar.

The Heed Questar phono stage is suitable for any line-level amplifier input, and can easily drive virtually any length of interconnect. There is no internal wiring or binding, and all high-current parts of the circuit are shielded. Both models feature gold-plated RCA terminals soldered directly onto the PCB, limiting all signal paths to a bare minimum.

The Heed Questar utilises an external Heed X-PSU power supply to avoid undesirable electro-magnetic interference within the chassis. Sonic performance can be even further enhanced by upgrading to the Heed Q-PSU power supply.

Features

2 versions: MM or MC preamplifier
2-stage topology
Discrete bipolar transistor circuits
Upgradeable power supply

Specifications

Inputs: 1 x stereo RCA
Outputs: 1 x stereo RCA
Freq. Response: 20 Hz – 20kHz
Input sensitivity: 3 mV (MM) / 220 µV (MC)
Input Impedance: 47 kΩ (MM) / 100 Ω (MC)
Gain: 42 dB (MM) / 64 dB (MC)
Power supply options: X-PSU 30 (standard) / Q-PSU / Obelisk PX
Max. Consumption: 15 W
Weight: 1.2 kg
Dimensions (WxHxD): 9.5 x 7.5 x 22 cm