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Phono stage for 0.2mv cartridge?

  I am looking for a quality phono stage with at least 72db of gain.  During this last year I obtained a Canary MC10 which sounds beautiful but I am somewhat volume limited and listen at such high volume control settings that tube rush has become an issue.  At 69.5db of gain I hoped that the Canary would work out but...
  Most of the popular stages like the Herron and the Manlely Steelhead seem to run in the 66-70db gain range.  Reviewers seem to routinely report on these phono stages using cartridges with low outputs but that runs contrary to my experience so far.  Any suggestions appreciated.

Bill
wbs

Showing 1 response by billwojo

billwojo
397 posts
 
Why not use a SUT to bump up the output and than run that into a good MM phono stage. SUT will not introduce noise if properly built and grounded.I use a SUT for my Denon DL-103 and run that into a Audio Research SP-8 preamp. Very musical and no hiss or hum. It's a very popular approach. Not easy to build a quiet high gain phono preamp.

BillWojo
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