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

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.

Bdp24, that makes lots of sense. I'm now running the phono on the lowest gain for MC and I've got plenty of room on my volume control on the preamp to reach satisfying levels. This seems to be the way to go.

All good advice. Both my phono preamp and line preamps have several gain settings and I found that the most critical gain setting is at the phono stage level. You want to use the lowest gain setting that allows a good rotation on your line preamp. From my experience, too much gain for a given cartridge's output results in a harsh, shrill, and overall unpleasant sound. Using the KAB calculator, which I find to be quite accurate, the optimal gain for your cartridge is 58 dB so it makes sense that you'd find the 56dB level to work well.

Very cool. I never saw the KAB cacalculator before, though I've been to the site. Learn something new every day ! 

I used to run my phono gain at 60dB......with the KAB calculator I set it at 56dB and find the sound much more appealing.