Phono Stage

@signaforce 

As mdalton stated, "you want to get the gain right". Critical to achieve that. If the cartridge manufacturer specifications state 60db, that may vary slightly one way or another and if your phono preamp does not allow a little leeway one way or another, you are limited with your settings.

To give you an idea, the Rega Ania setting recommended is 69.5db. That is a setting that few phono preamps can offer. I think maybe the actual 69.5 setting is one that only a Rega preamp can achieve. But Rega does things in a proprietary manner. Most LOMC cartridges will be in the low to mid-60's. Kind of shocked that the McIntosh only goes up to 60db. Maybe someone can explain that?

The Blue Unami would require around a 65db setting, so you would be better suited to figure out (for sure) what cartridge you will be using before buying a preamp. 

@jallan   +1  I am very pleased with my Hegel V10.  It is half-size, so would meet that desire of the OP.  It also has gain up to 64 dB, so would work in that respect.  It is able to keep up with my $10,000 digital front end.

@ellliottbnewcombjr

Agreed!!

The Aesthetix Rhea is a great phono stage!!

@signaforce 

I ran my Hana ML with Sutherland 20/20 set at 58db and 200ohm load.
It was fine. I tried a higher gain setting but came back to 58.

With Whest phono stage I liked 60db for the ML and had it loaded at 1000ohms.
A gain of 65db on Whest was not the best setting as it pushed everything forward and added artificial dynamics with the ML.
With Umami Blue I find both 60 and 65db to work just fine. Both the Blue and the ML have 0.4mv output. I dialed the loading back to 100ohm for the Umami at least until I get 50 or so hours on it to play with loading. Sounds excellent at 100 as well. 
 

I’m still far from reaching the optimal performance with the Blue at about 10hrs and it’s been interesting this break in process…
 

@goodlistening64 I had the McIntosh in my system and used XLRs. It was completely fine with 60db gain. 
Its specs state 16/8 volt (balanced/unbalanced). I can only use XLRs in my system - my integrated amp doesn’t offer single ended inputs. 
My buddy, who lent me the MP100 runs it both balanced and single ended and there’s no issue with it in his system either. For the 0.4mv output cartridge 60db is fine unless you have a super low gain preamp section.