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Phono amp gain too high? (EAR 834p)

Hi everyone,

I have long been interested in trying the EAR 834P, and I recently came across the old Stereophile review of it.  In the measurements section, the gain for MM carts was 49.2db and 68.2 for MC.  That seems to be an inordinately high gain if I'm not mistaken.  I don't  know how to determine whether this would overload my integrated amp.  I am running an LFD LE V and a Clearaudio Maestro V2 (3.6mV).  I can't find specs on the integrated as far as gain and input sensitivity.  As I understand it, there is no active preamp in the LFD, but I can't even confirm that.  Is there someone with better technical understanding who can help?   

Thanks for your thoughts,Scott
smrex13

Showing 1 response by cleeds

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cleeds
5,645 posts
 
yogiboy  " ... If you buy one used make sure it has a variable volume,as some of them do not."

A volume control on a phono preamp? That doesn't sound like a good idea - it's likely to lower the system's s/n ratio. It's better to properly match a phono preamp to the line stage so that the line stage can't be overloaded. Then, adjust volume from the linestage.
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