Phono stage for 0.2mv cartridge?

Another piece of information that might help would be what was used prior to the Canary acquisition?
Another Phonostage or using the c100 phono input?
And how was it prior to the Canary in the system with the same carts?

I have no lack of horsepower.  I am passively biamping B&W N801s with an MC2000 and MC1000s.
Thank you for the conversion, Al.  I have wondered what the db gain is.  Actually, I am using my 0.2mv cartridge with the preamp phono stage with good results, slightly more apparent volume than the 0.3mv cartridge and the Canary.  Which kinda supports my position regarding how much gain I might want.
Uberwaltz--I have owned these units since new (whew) and the volume characteristics I have described have been consistent, and I have never considered them to be out of the norm.  The stereo is capable of live seeming volume levels in any genre and can be overwhelming when desired.

Bill

I can't imagine why you have volume trouble with 70dB gain.  Should be plenty.  Listening with volume control up past 12:00 is also desireable, as this is the lowest distortion region.

Hiss?  Well, that could just be the phonostage.  Other ones may be quieter.  Or you could use something like a Piccolo2 on the front-end to put things back together.

Op
definitely no lack of ponies for sure.
but still curious as to what you used for a phono prior to the Canary and how that performed volume position wise?

I am using my 0.2mv cartridge with the preamp phono stage with good results, slightly more apparent volume than the 0.3mv cartridge and the Canary. Which kinda supports my position regarding how much gain I might want.

If the cartridge specs are accurate and are defined on a consistent basis the 0.3 mv cartridge provides 3.52 db more output than the 0.2 mv cartridge under the same conditions. And if the Canary phono stage and the C100’s built-in phono stage are performing to spec the C100’s phono stage provides 3.5 db more gain than the Canary. So those two differences should cancel out, resulting in exactly the same volume settings for the two cases.

However the "if" I began that paragraph with may be a bit too "iffy" to draw any firm conclusions.

BTW, unrelated to all of this I’ll mention FYI that I would expect that you are using the 1.2 volt sensitivity setting of the MC2000, rather than the 2.5 volt setting, to achieve a reasonable gain match between the two amps, assuming you are using the same output taps on both amps and the same type of interconnections to both (i.e. unbalanced or balanced). Although even in that case the higher powered MC1000 amp would still be providing about 2.4 db more gain than the lower powered MC2000 amp, probably resulting in a slight over-emphasis of the bass. (As far as I can see neither amp provides a level adjustment other than the high/low sensitivity switch on the MC2000).

Regards,
-- Al