[bacobits1]

Here is another one reasonably priced. From Audio Asylum.
http://home.comcast.net/~omaille/anumber1/sut.html

D

[blakep]

As John has very aptly pointed out earlier in this thread, matching gain from phono stage to cartridge output is critical and is either overlooked by many vinylphiles or is a problematic area at least in terms of high output MC's mainly because most of the phono stages are optimized gain wise for either standard MM's with an output in the 4-5 mV area or low output MC's.

Get the gain right and you are off to a good start. Get it wrong and you'll never really hear what an analog front end is capable of. Too much gain and you're in an overload situation with aggressive, strident sound; too little and the sound will be anemic and lacking in dynamics.

To me, matching gain with output is extremely important and I'd try to get it dead on. I would not even consider running a cartridge phono pre combination that was not matched up to within 3 db + or - but that's me. Beyond that, you are seriously compromising your sound quality.

The KAB phono preamp gain computer is a great tool to do the calculations for you and in my experience is pretty much dead on. It can be found here:

www.kabusa.com/frameset.htm?index.htm

Just click on gain computer on the left hand side of the index page.

[TheChairGuy]

Hear, hear Blake - bingo on the above info about gain (critically important with HOMC's and rarely mentioned)

Forgot about that KAB gain/voltage calculator....good reminder/link.

I have 39db gain in phono (59 total with linestage) on my new preamp coming soon and I hope it is enough to propel the Ortofon X5-MC (2 mv) and Denon DL-160vdH(2.2 mv) a little further ahead in performance.  I think, however, these lower value voltage HOMC's probably need another total 3db to sound aptly dynamic (my speakers are 87db average efficiency in a 12 x 15' room with average gain amplifiers).  The KAB calculator illustrates that well.

We'll see...but you are amply right...gain even for higher output moving coils and moving magnets on the lower range (3mv and less) might need a bit of a boost from the standard 36 - 40 db gain stages of most phono sections.

John