As Salamon say's it depends on your amp.Underwood wally said optimal would be a MC at .4 Mv or more which leaves a lot of choices out.My buddy uses his with a .23 Dyna and needs to use front volume in addition to max rear gain setting.Seems well built and quiet if you don't have the 47K hum.Overall it seems like a bang up $1K value.
WWW.10Audio.com
might give it too high a rating but
http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=5348
seems to knock it a bit compared to Whest 2.0.Yet this isn't big surprise.Whest is more $$$ and less flexible. amp.Chris Martens of Absolute Sound gave it a big thumbs up.Seem,s like it's quiet but in some system,s can either roll off top end compared to $2K to $5K class or in some systems make a system sound harsh (there's reviewsing for you).But unless you want to go to $150% of cost or maybe even twice or three time it you won't get better sound and certainly flexibility.Wally's PCX mods really seem to kick it up and are worth the $700 mod or $1500 new unit.Get and Aesthetix Rhea,EAR 324 and you get flexibility and have to pay for used USED unit three time price.But both would blow doors on PS.Spend a more on Krell KPE,Linn Linto,ARS mini etc etc and you'll pay twice as much and not get flexibility but a better sounding unit (I wonder how it would versus a stock or modded EAR 834 the previous "real world" champ.Maybe the raved about value Minimax phono but again less bells and whistles with both).Seems like well conceived unit that is a a flexibility and sound champ at $1K to $1.5K.If they can do it don't know why others can't.Rogue had a $1750 mock up unit that never got off boards.But market is ripe for competitor maybe a tubed with cart flexibility,mono,volume and phase.Until then unless your gonna spend way more money you won't get flexibility or sonics.Might trade my KRC2/KPE combo on one myself and lose some KPE resolution for a much more flexible unit.For on budget who want to have ability to go direct to amp or swap cart heads or tubes on fly it seems like no brainer though as long you have enough cart output and/or amplification to carry it through.
Chazzbo
WWW.10Audio.com
might give it too high a rating but
http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=5348
seems to knock it a bit compared to Whest 2.0.Yet this isn't big surprise.Whest is more $$$ and less flexible. amp.Chris Martens of Absolute Sound gave it a big thumbs up.Seem,s like it's quiet but in some system,s can either roll off top end compared to $2K to $5K class or in some systems make a system sound harsh (there's reviewsing for you).But unless you want to go to $150% of cost or maybe even twice or three time it you won't get better sound and certainly flexibility.Wally's PCX mods really seem to kick it up and are worth the $700 mod or $1500 new unit.Get and Aesthetix Rhea,EAR 324 and you get flexibility and have to pay for used USED unit three time price.But both would blow doors on PS.Spend a more on Krell KPE,Linn Linto,ARS mini etc etc and you'll pay twice as much and not get flexibility but a better sounding unit (I wonder how it would versus a stock or modded EAR 834 the previous "real world" champ.Maybe the raved about value Minimax phono but again less bells and whistles with both).Seems like well conceived unit that is a a flexibility and sound champ at $1K to $1.5K.If they can do it don't know why others can't.Rogue had a $1750 mock up unit that never got off boards.But market is ripe for competitor maybe a tubed with cart flexibility,mono,volume and phase.Until then unless your gonna spend way more money you won't get flexibility or sonics.Might trade my KRC2/KPE combo on one myself and lose some KPE resolution for a much more flexible unit.For on budget who want to have ability to go direct to amp or swap cart heads or tubes on fly it seems like no brainer though as long you have enough cart output and/or amplification to carry it through.
Chazzbo