cartridge output level

Hi guys, thanks for all the inputs, I'm really learning a lot from all of you. Yesterday evening I got a phone call from Alex Crespi, VP Hovland company (WOW, he called me overseas, we're not used to that kind of customer care here), he very patiently explained to me that the 14 dB of gain of the line stage are for the most part located in the last part of the volume run (forgive my english, I hope you get what I mean) to give a better control, so it's not uncommon to have to work around 3 o'clock position. Besides, it could very well be that the 0.45 mv spec'd by VdH @ 5.7 cm/sec, are on the low side due to this slightly higher speed. He also said that the tube rush can be an issue at those volumes,I'm not the first to report it, and based on his experience, a cart output level in the 0.6/0.8 mv range should almost match the volume with CD. Now, I would like to point out, as I did in my original post, that this tube rush is not unbearable, I was just wondering how's life without any. Looks like, to find out I have to either change my beloved Colibri (Clearaudio anyone?) or go SS (hugh), or maybe the low noise tubes mentioned by Rlawry could do...
Life's getting harder, please keep the inputs coming guys, I really appreciate it.
Cheers,
Marco

Rlawry

Gregm: I am not sure what you are asking,

Oooops, I must have completely confused you -- my post was intended for Cptaz. Sorry! (nice set-up, btw.)

Did you speak with Hovland about possibly increasing the gain in either the phono or line stages? I was able to have this done on an earlier phono stage I had. Sometimes this cannot be done due to limited phono overload. Another thing is the volume control taper, although it probably won't change the tube rush problem. Or even your power amp manufacturer may be able to increase the voltage gain. Just alternatives to increasing your cartridge output, which sounds expensive to me.

Hi Viridian, yes I thought about that, looks like I cannot contact VdH directly as I did with Hovland, the way to go is through the italian importer, I can send the cart back for "retuning" and in the meantime submit this request, it's gonna take a while, I'll let you know.
Hi Gregm, I'm sorry I also don't understand, the stated overload of the Hovland phono stage of 0.9 mv (millivolt) I thought was meant to be the maximum output level of the cartridge, am I wrong here?
Hi Rlawry, looks like increasing the gain in the Hovland is not an option, and the volume taper (I don't know what a taper is, behind the volume knob there's a chunky thing full of resistors) has been designed that way for a reason, according to mr. Crespi. The power amps option sounds interesting though, I didn't know you could increase their gain, does that mean increase power? I'll try to talk to the manufacturer, that should be much easier being Mastersound an italian brand. I wonder though, if I could do that and fix the problem with LPs, woudn't I end up having the opposite problem with CDs, I mean not being able to go beyond 9 o'clock?
Thank you all,
Marco