Making vinyl louder

[Mike Reed]

Sure, there is no issue in turning the volume control knob round with a ss preamp - but there is with a tube preamp.

Interesting, as I've never noticed increase in noise levels from my Naim 552/Superline combo to my now EAR valved pre. with onboard stages. Presumably why, despite impedance selection on my EAR 912 pre., there's also a 3 stage gain setting for phono. Mind you, I only need recourse to this when I occasionally encounter a record with seemingly higher volume output. Does help, balancing this against the pot.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

I'm afraid I don't agree with you, DV.

Sure, there is no issue in turning the volume control knob round with a ss preamp - but there is with a tube preamp. (Due to the inherent noise floor of a tube preamp, compared to ss.)

And I suggest you are being absurdly pedantic in calling out a difference between a "volume control" and an "attenuator".

It's all about the matching of the gain of one's phono stage with the output of one's cart:
* a 40dB (100x) phono stage matched with a 5mV cart output is fine (it's the default!).
* but, say, a 36.5dB (67x) phono stage matched with a 4dB cart output is a bit "light on". Better a 42dB phono stage (125x) with such a cart.

If the noise is coming from the pre-amp, then you need a change of preamp choice OR get a cart with a higher output. However if you already have a cart with 2.5mV/0dB(RIAA) sensitivity then going to 5mV will only drop the relative noise 6dB or so. In fact, possibly *less* than that if its coil impedance is higher as the price of more output voltage.

(The 'load' the cart presents to the amp input also affects the noise level as it shunts away some of the 'current noise generator' power. This is an effect that many people seem not to know, and can matter.)

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

FWIW I stopped looking for better preamps for MC carts when I found the old Hitachi HA12017 back c1980. When in doubt, if you can find some, use them.