I love my vinyl and like you have a Mcintosh C42 preamp. I own an outboard Plinius Phono preamp (great piece) (3494) and for the last two tears have used it with a Sumiko Celebration cartridge (1500). My friend has a C42 also and was using a Clearaudio Virtuoso II mm cartridge with the built in phono amp. It sounds really good. In fact, I bought a Virtuoso cartridge and am now selling my phono preamp. I have since bought a C2200 preamp with the bulit in tube phono stage and am really pleased with that. I kept the C42 and use it in another system . I have two setups using the Virtuoso and couldn't be happier. It was 599 at the Elusive Disc with any cartridge trade in. Just wanted to give you another thought - everyone seems to have good suggestions also except parting with the C42 - unless it is to get a C2200. Have fun!
Will I benifit form a external phono stage
I currently have a rega p-25 with a benz HO ACE cartridge
My preamp is a Mcintosh c-42 its phono stage is set up for
a MM cartridge thats why I have a HO on the p-25. Will I
notice any sonic inprovement if I was to put a tubed phono
stage (BATvkp5 or Audio Research PH3SE) into a solid state
system. This would allow me to put a LO cartridge on the
rega p-25. Any imput on my quest to improve my analog section is appreciated. thanks David
My preamp is a Mcintosh c-42 its phono stage is set up for
a MM cartridge thats why I have a HO on the p-25. Will I
notice any sonic inprovement if I was to put a tubed phono
stage (BATvkp5 or Audio Research PH3SE) into a solid state
system. This would allow me to put a LO cartridge on the
rega p-25. Any imput on my quest to improve my analog section is appreciated. thanks David