What Does It Take To Surpass A SME V?

Your system may differ from that of the BMC seller in terms of downstream gain factors, but  I agree you’ll most likely be ok at the 0db setting, as noted above. If not then it’s easy to switch to the 7db setting.

Well the phono stage arrived safely today. It certainly is a large and solid piece of gear. Beautiful fit and finish too. It is in the rack and powered up now. Have to wait until the Schroder arm shows up though. Well, actually i did get an Audio Sensibility tone arm cable with XLR ends, I could install it on the SME V and play it that way if I wanted to. But I can be patient till the new arm gets here. 

I keep mine powered up at all times, with the MUTE switch engaged when it’s not in use.

@lewm, My guess is zero dB will be too low. The MC diamond with the Setal L requires the high setting and I have 4 choices. The Signature Platinum uses the lowest setting. I think this has more to do with the cartridges impedance than anything. It will be interesting to see how the Atlas fairs at 1.5 ohms and 0.2 mv. The Diamond is 6 ohms and 0.2 mv, the Signature Platinum 1.5 ohms and 0.5 mv. The Verismo is 7 ohms at 0.2 mv. It will have even less output into a transimpedance stage than the Diamond. 

@neonknight , please let us know what you wind up using for the gain setting. You will get two cartridge mounting plates with the Schroder, Certal an aluminum alloy and Brass. You will need to use the brass one. They do not come with a finger lift. If you would like to have one contact me and I will put one on for you. You can see it on my system page. It is very light. I use aluminum wire and heat shrink wrap. The wrap is to dampen any resonance the wire might have. As far as I can tell it does not affect performance. As for antiskating, If you have a blank record side the tonearm should drift slowly towards the spindle at the beginning of the record and will pick up speed as it travels across. If you start toward the label it will drift towards the label at about twice the speed as at the beginning. I adjust anti skate with a WallySkater at the recommended 11% for a 9" arm and this is what I see on a blank side. I track the MC Diamond at 2.5 gms and the antiskate just makes it with the screw turned fully clockwise. The Verismo has the same tracking force range 2.5 to 2.8 gm. Recommended is 2.6 gm but with the standard screw you can not get the anti skate high enough. Schroder makes a longer screw for higher tracking forces which I mean to order. I have had no problems with miss tracking. The cartridge flies through Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger no problem. 

I also leave my phono stage on all the time. I have no choice as the Seta L does not have a power switch. The battery charger is kicked out when signal is detected leaving only the connection to the batteries. The only items I turn off are the power amps even so my electric bill last month was $1400.00!! 4 months ago it was $400. Wonderful way to get people to switch to electric cars. 

Mijo, you are entitled to your guess. Your guess may be as good as mine, except I own and have used the BMC, and you own the Seta. The two units may have differences in both input impedance and current gain. Dunno. I’m only extrapolating from my prior experience, as noted. Input Z of the BMC is said to be <3 ohms. Do you have those data for the Seta? The outcome is not solely dependent upon the internal R of the cartridge, given two cartridges of exactly equal V output.