JC3+ With Kleos SL?

I repeat: Driving a phono stage capable of 65 dB of gain with a cartridge that puts out 0.25mV under standard conditions is not per se “stress”-ful. I don’t suggest that you didn’t hear what you heard. I do think maybe there was some unknown factor that affected your results. In general, I agree with you that ideally you want all components to operate within their comfort zone. Or maybe you were picking up RF, etc. There are many possibilities.

Ok, here’s my question for the OP and lewm.Why do you think that Lyra and the distributor both recommend a phono stage with at least 65db of gain, vs one that has 64db of gain? Could it be that they know something that lewm doesn’t? 

I think they are just being safe and don’t want folks unhappy and trying to return a handbuilt $4k cartridge. Not sure I mentioned it but they did say my setup should work fine. I do have other phono pres, including a tubed one with gobs of gain that I can use if necessary. I think my old PS Audio GCPH has switchable gain.

Called Lyra with a card number, they sent the RMA info so now I need to box it up and ship it.

Take it EZ,
Robert

 Of course, I would never pretend to challenge the knowledge level of anyone like Jonathan Carr, when it comes to this subject. However, please show me where Jonathan Carr ever wrote that 65 DB of gain was good but 64 dbof gain is not good. Thanks. 

65db of gain equates to 1778 times V. So 0.25mV of cartridge output becomes ~450mV.
64db of gain equates to ~1600 times V. The 0.25mV output is amplified to ~400mV.

Unless you’re using a passive linestage, you’re going to end up with ~4V of signal given 64 dB of phono gain, which is more than twice the signal voltage needed to drive any amplifier to full output .