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Best gain setting on phono pre- low/medium/high?

I have a phone preamp that permits three gain setting, 56dB, 66dB and 76dB. All three are usable, just need to adjust the volume on my preamp differently. What's the best thing to do- use lowest phono gain and more preamp gain, most phono gain and less preamp gain, or stick to the middle settings? 

I know this sounds like the 3 bears. 

I recall reading sometime back that keeping the volume control higher has advantages 


128x128zavato
paraneer's avatar
paraneer
818 posts
 

Nothing to do with the three bears.  There is a an exact reason why your phono stage has three gains settings. 

What's your cartridge and specifically is it a MM or a MC?  Also, what phono stage do you have because a min of 56db is pretty high for a MM. 

zavato's avatar
zavato OP
1,403 posts
 
Running an MC cartridge (Linn Arkiv B) -  these are the available gain settings for MC cartridges that my phono pre offers (pass xp15)

I should have specified that 
paraneer's avatar
paraneer
818 posts
 
Thanks.  Your cartridge has an output of 0.4 mV so I would use the 56 or 66 db gain settings and see what sounds best.  Even though your cartridge is a low output MC, it isn't that low to consider the 76db setting.
zavato's avatar
zavato OP
1,403 posts
 
I've never used 76db- that was too much
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,788 posts
 
The lower the gain setting on the phono, the higher will it's overload figure be, a very good thing. Balance that against the noise penalty of a lower gain setting. With lower gain from the phono, the higher the line stage volume control can then be, also a good thing. Volume pots track left and right balance better at higher settings than at lower.
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