All good advice. Both my phono preamp and line preamps have several gain settings and I found that the most critical gain setting is at the phono stage level. You want to use the lowest gain setting that allows a good rotation on your line preamp. From my experience, too much gain for a given cartridge's output results in a harsh, shrill, and overall unpleasant sound. Using the KAB calculator, which I find to be quite accurate, the optimal gain for your cartridge is 58 dB so it makes sense that you'd find the 56dB level to work well.
Best gain setting on phono pre- low/medium/high?
I have a phone preamp that permits three gain setting, 56dB, 66dB and 76dB. All three are usable, just need to adjust the volume on my preamp differently. What's the best thing to do- use lowest phono gain and more preamp gain, most phono gain and less preamp gain, or stick to the middle settings?
I know this sounds like the 3 bears.
I recall reading sometime back that keeping the volume control higher has advantages
I know this sounds like the 3 bears.
I recall reading sometime back that keeping the volume control higher has advantages