Problem with phono stage


Hello Fellow Audiogoners,

I need help with my Phono stage. It is Lehman Audio Black Cube from Germany.  It was recommended from Simao, a very respected Audiogon member who helped me a lot when I was building my stereo. It costs 450$ brand new which I bought used from this site. Michael Fremer considers it one of the best steals in phono stages. I get a little bit better detail and bass extension BUT it also much noisier. I can hear the pops and any other noises  on the records much more then with the phono stage of my Arcam FMJ 28 which turned out to be a surprisingly good one considering it is an integrated one.
I also switched the cables but the noise is still there.
Is this a common problem with added phono stages as opposed to integrated ones or something is wrong with my phono and needs to be checked.

All help will be greatly appreciated.
Emil


emilm
@lewm Nagaoka is Jeweltone in Japan, I hope this link will help a bit with info and tech specs for MP models. Use google translate or google chrome browser for automatic translation. 
Dear @lewm  : I don't hate you in any way, for me you are one of my close Agon true friends. That many times we can be in disagreement means nothing about our friendship/relationship. I love you man.

Yes, the tube subject today is just out of my mindn as you know I was a tube lover too for at least 10 tears: no way to come back no matters what. 

Yes, you are rigth about José and that's why you can read in the circuit boards: J&R.

You own the two MC stages version and just looking the circuit boards so kind cared of each single soldered part you know that " there " is something special. Everything was made it by us but the blank circuit boards that we bougth from Silicon Valley company.

Mijostyn could think about ego but no I'm not that kind of person, of course that as a human been I'm proud to own " something " builded by " my self " and that performs so good and addirtional to that I'm happy that exist other 7 proudly owners of our units.
This fact was really a fortuit one because the Essential was designed for my way demanding needs even Jos'e has not the Essential.

We really take care on the overall design and execution to that design even the logic " card " works excellent and it the circuit that starts to works when you switch-on the unit and for around 12 seconds one led is blinking and stops at the end of the check-upprocess that the Essential does it and if the unit has any single parameter out of our really tigth specs/tolerances the Essential just does not works.

The people that do not seen the Essential could think it's a " garage " item but yyyou know that is far away from there, that unit weigth around 27kg that at the end could means almost nothing.

Btw, do you already used the Neumann pole option in your unit?  I have to say that normally that 3.18us pole develops several problems of phase and other issues in the RIAA eq. when it's not well designed and I want to tell you that we really take care about.

That pole is way important to any LP lover because the inverse RIAA eq curve goes down/fall to infinitum after 20khz but during the recording process the RIAA emphasis that goes around 20db at 20khz and up does not goes at " infinitum " due that the cutter head at around 50khz it will be burn-in so exist a filter to stop process ( DMM can goes to 60khz. ) and it's this way as the LP comes to us and that's why all well recorded LPs does not have the rigth response over 20khz but only if we re-integrated the frequencies that goes losting/lowering leves through the inverse phono stages RIAA eq. curve. Anyway you have the option to test it.


The gentleman that always try to hit me but to increment his frustration never has success one time that I posted somewhere about the necessity that a phonolinepream has a wide frequency response over 1Mhz  like the Essential or Spectral and other units he asked why and been he a tube phono stage designer I thinked why is asking for when he must knew about and my answer was that ask that issue to K.Johnson of Spectral. It's way interesting.

Finally, the op-amps main issue. Which the real problem with: high feedback to lower distortion levels.

Feedback is a phenomenon created by mother's nature, Universe function with feedback, and is part of Newton laws. Our day by day life is full of feedback, even our brain works with.

Today op-amps improved a lot over the last 10-15 years. Analog Devices or Ti and other manufacturers improves about each single day. Even the ones I lnked here that we used many years ago in my first PLP and that cames from National ( out of market. ) and B&B whom was bougth by Ti performed really good.

The today op-amps are using NFB? yes but there are several ways to use NFB and depemnding of the skilled and knowledge levels of the designers that NFB " devil " could be not any more the way terrible " devil " of the past.
No one knows more about and how to use NFB that the expert ( true experts. ) engeneers from AD or Ti and other companies dedicated to.

Here what N.Pass says about and even that we could think that NFB is not what we want it read carefully the conclusion at the last sentence ( and this is only one audio gentleman amp designer. I will try to bring here to talk about to Wyn whom colaborated for years and designed for Analog Devices and now retired and working as a free-lance expert advisor. ):

https://www.passlabs.com/technical_article/audio-distortion-and-feedback/

those information comes from 2008, maybe NP could has news about and certainly he has because his First Watt amps use NFB and many people love it !.  Everything is related to the design the rigth way to use feedback. If we are totally afraid of it and I mean amp designers then could be because those amp designers just do not know yet how to " handle " it.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
@lewm  : Btw, yes after a half a hour the class A bias settle down and the RIAA bass range too due that those teflon caps needs some time to.

The Esential ""  It's excellent from the get-go but ...." as you said/experienced it.

In the other sideSET tube designs has feedback, it does not exist no-feedback as some tube designers say.

This issue was explained to me by José and no I don't go to do it. If a designer of tube electronics wants to know about it has to learn by him self.

R.
Wow, this makes me vertiginous. All I do is flip the power switch, sink in and listen. Does any of this matter to me?
Lewm, welcome to the, " how the heck do you interpret R" club. I think it is best to let him vent and move on. Trying to make sense out of what he is saying will give you a headache. We have recommended that he use a translator but he refuses. 
This from a German magazine, measurements on the MP150, a close cousin to the MP110, gave inductance of 630mH. Note also the frequency response graphs for the given load R and C. They also mentioned the MP300 in this test, and it gave near identical value for inductance, which suggests that the MP110 would measure similarly.
http://www.nagaoka-deutschland.de/pdf/TESTBERICHT%20AUDIO.pdf
This information is offered to help the OP, not to further or provoke any arguments with Raul. Other sites do quote >800mH for the MP110.


But this article may be of more help to the OP, since it does not involve understanding how inductance affects the high frequency peak that is characteristic of all MM or MI types. Here they show how the capacitance load affects the frequency response of the Nagaoka MP11, evidently a precursor to the MP110. Just know that the "capacitance load" must include the capacitance of the phono ICs + the capacitance of the phono input gain stage + any added capacitors for loading. After all this reading and researching, I am inclined to agree with Atma-sphere that the emphasis on ticks and pops which the OP experiences might be cured by changing load R or C. And this article is sort of a guide how he might do that. For sure, all these sources give high marks to the overall SQ afforded by the MP110. So high in fact that I am about to recommend it to my nephew, a budding audiophile.
http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/nagaoka_mp11_e.html