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Gain challenge with Lyra Delos

I recently upgraded to the Lyra Delos. It bests my previous cartridge, the dynavector 10x5 by a long shot. But praises aside, I am having trouble driving this cartridge with my electronics, and something seems like it may be wrong.

I am going from lyra Delos, to audio research ph3se (54dB gain) to audio research LS25 via single ended cable (12dB gain) to Audio Research VT100 mkII amplifier, to Rockport Mira Monitors (87dB sensativity).

In order to get loud-ish sound in my small to medium sized room, I need to set my volume knob on the ARC LS25 to 3 o'clock or all the way to maximum. Once the level is this high, noise from the preamp is quite an issue, not to mention, there is nowhere to go from maximum. It is a bit surprising to me that with 54dB out of the phono pre, and 12 dB more from the preamp, that this situation would present itself. Is there something wrong?

I am considering switching the ARC PH3SE for a BAT VK-P5, which would get me one extra dB from the phono pre and 6 extra dB from the ARC preamp when using the balanced input over the single ended. I am thinking a 7dB jump would solve my problem.

Do you agree? Also, do you think there is something wrong in my cartridge or system, or this low output with this collection of gear seems right?

Thank you!
- Mark
marktomaras

Showing 1 response by actusreus

actusreus
733 posts
 
I use my Delos with 58 dB of gain with sufficient volume; in the past it worked fine with 54 dB as well. I find 63 dB makes the sound shrill and overall unpleasant so I would not recommend going over 60 dB on the pre, but...

I think the issue is with your speakers that have a rather low sensitivity, and possibly low or not flat impedance for the tubes to drive them well. When I switched from my 91 dB/8 ohm flat monitors, to 86 dB/6 ohm speakers, I also had to crank up the volume on my line tube preamp quite a bit to get sufficient volume even though I drove them with a pair of 180 WPC tube monoblocks. So in your case, perhaps more gain would work, but I'd recommend trying to fix the problem with a better match for your amps rather than more gain as 0.6 mV cart should not need more than 54-58 dB in most systems for best performance.
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