Phono preamp gain setting

I have to turn the volume up quite high on my linestage to get the right volume.

Excellent, that is exactly what you want.. In an ideal world as you turn it up you should hit the ideal loudness just as you have it all the way up. There is no such thing as having the volume knob too high unless it is too loud at that point.

It will not hurt anything to try different loads.

40 db is too low for that cart.

How do you figure that? The gain needed is function of the total system gain, not just the phono. If you can't get the system to play loud enough all the way up you need more gain. If you can't turn the volume up very far without it getting too loud you need less gain.

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Hmmmmmm

A $4,500 preamp that gets noisy around halfway up. That sounds like you have an issue somewhere. Are you sure it is the preamp or is that once you get up to that level you begin to start hearing noise that is coming from the phono stage? Bad tubes in the Calypso? What kind of noise?

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I'm going to disagree with HDM. I don't see an extra 4dB in the phono stage doing anything that can't be accomplished by turning up the preamp another 4dB, Gain is gain, it doesn't matter where it comes from.

If you are hearing that kind of noise at that level something is wrong. The prime suspect is tubes in first stages of the Calypso but it could be before that.

Put shorting plugs in the input of the Calypso and see if you still have the noise. If not it's coming from the phono stage.

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