Match the phono-pre to cart., or arm?


Hello all:

I am narrowing my search for a phono pre-amp, and have a question for those who are more knowledgeable (not hard, if you know anything, you know more than me). Currently, I have a Rega P-25 with the stock arm (I added VTA & Heavyweight to the RB 600) and a Dynavector 17-D Karat cartridge.

Does it make sense to match either the arm or the cartridge supplier? Both Rega and Dynavector have phono pre's.

Thank's in advance, Dave.
consttraveler
I second and agree with the above, and actully, the pre-amp or amp that the phono stage is going into is also important, though not as important as the cartridge. There are more phono stages available now than I have ever seen- and I would heed twl's advise- that is about as low an output you will get in a cartridge. Remember those numbers he gave for reference because there are a lot of phono amps that don't have the gain you need, and that will narrow your search.
The stereophile search is also a great idea- there are to many reviews of phono stages there than I can evan remember. You would be lucky to hear half of them. If you are lucky enough to live in a city where you can audition some, you may be in for a real treat, as a good phono stage can make as big an improvement as a good cartridge.
The brand is not that important, just the sound quality and the match. You have a nice cartridge that is low output moving-coil. It has .23mv output, which is low. You will need about 60-70db of gain for it. Few tube units will have anywhere near 70db of gain, so you may have to use a step-up device, or use a SS phono section. Benz-Lukaschek makes a good one called the PP-1.
The cartridge must be compatible with the tonearm in regards to compliance and resonant points, but the cartridge must also be correctly loaded by the phono preamp. Surprisingly, there is no compelling reason to have the same manufacturer for the the cartridge and the phono preamp. Do a search of the Stereophile website, they have a series of excellent articles on how these goals are accomplished.
I'd say the more critical match on phone pre is to the cart, not the arm. This is a pure guess on my part but seems to make sense being those 2 need to electrically interface, the arm is never hooked up to the phono stage...

The cartrige does however have to like the arm it's on...