Owners of BAT VK-P10 or P10SE Phono Stage


Would anyone running one of these two BAT phono stages care to share their experiences with gain settings and cartridge loading for an Ortofon A90?  I have a VK-P10 (not the "SE" version) arriving and seek advice.

Of the standard loading options, I expect that the 100 Ohm. load will be best (I've found 100 Ohms to be indistinguishable from 30 Ohm and 50 Ohm settings on other phono stages), but I've preferred 200 Ohms on phono stages which offer that setting. I may also order a custom 200 Ohm loading pin from BAT if only out of curiosity. I believe the capacitance of my phono cable is roughly 450 picofarads, but I need to verify that.

As for gain, I've run the A90 at 66 and 72 db. of gain - which one sounded best depended upon the phono stage. Ideally, I would use the direct input so as to bypass the step-up and I am equipping the unit with very good NOS tubes (i.e., not modern production garbage), but at 54 db. maximum gain in combination with the A-90's 0.27 @ 1 kHz. output, I don't expect that to work.

Thank you in advance for any input.
dearing