[dantakayama]

Hi,
I've now been using the Tortuga LDR for about 10 days and really enjoying the clean clear sound.
Recently I've put together a phono-stage kit designed by Boozhound Lab, which according to the document provides 40dB of gain. The sound is indeed very clean, no noise. But I have to turn the Tortuga volume to max and still the sound level is low...that is just about an easy listening, elevator music level.
I'm in search of additional gain. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Just to mention that with the line level input coming from my DAC, I have more than enough volume level with current set-up; only not with the phono-stage.

Thanks,
Daniel

[33na3rd]

Hi Daniel,

It will be interesting to see what others have to say. This is a question pertinant to many of us, myself included.

You might want to check out iFi's iTube. It can be set up into multiple configurations. The set up that might benefit you would be having the iTube set up as a buffer with 6 dB of gain. It can also be set up as a buffer with zero gain.

I noticed that one of the Boozehound Lab phono units has a Zout of 3 Kohms, similar to mine, so the buffer might be beneficial to sound quality also.

I must add that I've had no actual experience with the iTube, but have been investigating options to this problem myself.

[tortugaranger]

Hi,
I've now been using the Tortuga LDR for about 10 days and really enjoying the clean clear sound.
Recently I've put together a phono-stage kit designed by Boozhound Lab, which according to the document provides 40dB of gain. The sound is indeed very clean, no noise. But I have to turn the Tortuga volume to max and still the sound level is low...that is just about an easy listening, elevator music level.
I'm in search of additional gain. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Just to mention that with the line level input coming from my DAC, I have more than enough volume level with current set-up; only not with the phono-stage.

Thanks,
Daniel

Based solely on your note above and knowing nothing about the kit, I suspect that this phono-stage is not delivering a typical line level (line-stage) output voltage.

Also, the amount of gain you need in a phono-stage can have a lot to do with the raw output of your phono cartridge.  40 dB of gain might simply not be enough.

Chart of Typical Gain Values
Output            Gain
3 - 6 mV          36dB
1 - 3 mV          43dB
0.3 - 1.0 mV    53dB
0.15 - 0.3 mV  60dB

[tortugaranger]

I noticed that one of the Boozehound Lab phono units has a Zout of 3 Kohms, similar to mine, so the buffer might be beneficial to sound quality also.

A 3k output impedance feeding into a passive is not going to have happy results putting aside gain/volume issues. I'm not a JFET/amp expert by any means but looking at the circuit on the Boozhound website, I believe the R4 and R11 resistors set the gain on the JFETS but R11 also sets the output impedance. You could consider trying higher values to raise the gain but I agree this circuit really needs a buffer.