Reel to reel deck directly to power amp ?

Otari MX5050 BII2 manual says +4db max output. This won't be enough in many or most cases, correct ?
One more potential issue, if phono stage has only RCA outputs I would lose 6db of gain when using RCA to XLR cables or adapters.

Almarg, if you're saying that .775 volts is enough to drive an amp, you're more mistaken than the rest.

If all of youse chip in, you might be able to round out that square peg you're trying to fit in a round hole by chipping of the corners, or maybe you can square the hole a bit.

Almarg, what do you think "MAX" is? Do you drive 120 MPH or whatever the max speed your car will go?

Almarg, if you’re saying that .775 volts is enough to drive an amp, you’re more mistaken than the rest.

I certainly didn’t say that, and I was not addressing the Technics deck you referred to. (Although there are in fact some amps that can be driven to full power by less than 0.775 volts, the Coincident Frankenstein and Coincident Dynamo being examples). And for that matter I didn’t express agreement with Ralph’s statement that +4 dbm would necessarily be adequate.

Regarding Inna’s questions that followed my post, let’s wait for Ralph to confirm (or correct) my understanding of what the dbm numbers mean, which I’m not completely certain of.

Regards,
-- Al

Next step could be asking Ralph to custom make playback head tube preamp or maybe playback head/phono stage unit, and match it precisely to his amps, and match the amps to speakers. Now that would be high end.

I have an Atma-Sphere MP-3 that has switchable RIAA and IEC (15ips) EQ settings. While the linestage has the standard gain, Ralph has mentioned a number of times that this can be configured as a unity gain tube buffered output. Seems like this would meet your needs. I have used mine for a number of years now with the transport section of an Otari MX-5050, the signal taken directly off the tape heads. I also have the pro-sumer version of the deck that has the integrated preamp circuit with volume control. I can’t recall if I ever ran that directly into an amp, but guess I can check and report back here if anyone is interested.

Sure, I am interested, if it is not too much of a bother that would be great. What is your amp ?