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Manley Chinook - setting for Ortofon Quintet Black S

I am interested in advice.

I have a VPI Classic 2 turntable (10.5 tonearm) with an Ortofon Quintet Black S cartridge.  Using a Morrow Audio Ph6 phono interconnect (1 meter long).

I recently purchased the Manley Chinook phono pre-amp, which has many options including, gain, load capacitance, and resultant load.

Your personal recommendation on set-up would be greatly appreciated.

  1. What would you suggest I set for 45db or 60db gain? 
  2. What would you suggest load capacitance be set at?
    • 0pF, 50pF, 100pF, 150pF, 200pF, 250pF, 300pF, 350pF
  3. What would you suggest resultant load be set at?  
    • 26ohm, 30ohm, 40, 50,80, 115, 160, 265, 397, 47000
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Showing 1 response by mulveling

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
1,774 posts
 

I don’t have a Quintet but have used several similar Ortofon MCs. You definitely want 60dB over 45dB. But even 60 is a bit too low for that 0.3mV output, imho. The "Special Edition" Chinook from Upscale appears to add a 65dB gain mode which would be PERFECT for 0.3mV. That 5dB can make the difference between nice but slightly lifeless / anemic playback and exciting playback.

Capacitance should generally be kept to a minimum for MC cartridges. Try 0. It won’t actually be 0 (you phono cables have capacitance), but you want as close that that as possible.

With Ortofons like yours I would usually prefer either the 50 or 80 ohms loading. Try both. But either of these settings should sound good.

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