Would increasing the gain in the amp give more weight to the sound? Any negatives?

erik_squires804 posts09-22-2016 1:58pmGain does not affect body. 

In reality gain (in pounds :-) directly and surely affects body. To test it, switch to ice cream, apple danish with coca cola few times per day or more and drive-thru adventures via famous American food chains to experiment on body and gain.

Aside from humor, gain is important to reach necessary signal strength. If it's insufficient, than there will be an insufficient body. Gain must be increased either at source or preamp level. Gain of poweramp will affect the output power, but if there's not enough input signal, this gain obviously won't affect body or even if it will it may not be to the benefit of sound quality.

He has up to 8v! available from the Ph-1 phono stage and if it’s a low impedance output (<500ohms), there is no "signal strength" problem.
As most amps only need .5-1v in for full output into clipping, so why add even more gain with additional noise as well??

Cheers George

@czarivey Of course, I'm talking relatively. Unplug the amp and of course body will be affected too.

In my experience however, an impedance mismatch is more likely to cause a weak, or whimpy sound than gain. Your mileage may vary.

I don't think he has an impedance mismatch, as the phono is solid state, unless they did something really stupid to make it high impedance output like some tube ones are.

I think it may be a case of the tonal balance of the cartridge or what the loading by the phono stage is, as he says the cassett deck is fine. 


Cheers George

Yes, recordings made from records sound just fine, no complaints about the cartridge. The AcousTech has only two fixed settings for MM and MC.