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Increasing gain for your vinyl front end when pre-amp doesn't quite have enough juice

Hi Folks, just wanted to get your thoughts on what route you would go if your pre-amp (I’m talking about a normal pre-amp, not phono preamp) doesn’t quite have enough gain for very high listening levels for my turntable set-up. Now, on my phono-pre amp, there is a setting for maximum gain (schiit Mani) up to 59db, but the S/N ratio takes a hit and goes down to 70db, however, it does pump out the needed volume. What about the idea of putting in a good (inexpensive headphones amp/preamp - one of those $99 guys - like schiit Magni, JDS Labs Atom or Monolith Liquid Spark) between the phono preamp and the regular preamp? Does this have the potential of producing the needed gain while at the same time not degrading the signal too much (perhaps not as much as full gain on the Mani?) Just wanted to see what you all think. To me it seems like less items in the signal chain the better, but if it has a higher S/N ratio could be a better option? (with the added benefit of listening to vinyl through headphones, which I’ve never done before.)
bstatmeister
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
higher output cartridge, assuming your preamp has no adjustability and you have no interest in adding a phono pre.
bstatmeister OP
536 posts
 
Love my cart (nagaoka MP-150 I spent a long time researching and trying different carts already) and love my current phono-pre and not interested in spending more than $150 to 'fix' the issue. Between upping the gain on the mani or buying a headphones amp, what would you choose?
mulveling's avatar
mulveling
1,774 posts
 
At 4.5mV output on your MP-150, you’ll likely be running way to close to the overload margins of a phono stage running at 59 dB - especially a budget phono like the Mani. So in your case, yes adding a headphone amp with a net gain of around say 10-20 dB (careful to find an optimal volume position for whatever you choose) and running the phono at a lower gain would be much more optimal. But it’s still less optimal than just running a single preamp with a good gain structure for your system.

Doesn't your Mani have a 48 dB setting? that should be optimal for your MP-150. If your system is lacking gain at that setting, then ideally you need either more gain in your preamp, more gain in the amp, or more sensitive speakers. 
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Up the gain. For when you really need the volume.

The other idea, putting a very low voltage and RIAA equalized cartridge signal into a device designed for line voltage, not to mention adding another interconnect to screw things up, and I'm not even gonna start on grounding issues this mess might cause. You think a little white noise is a problem? You will just have try the headphone amp to appreciate the awfulness of that one. All those scores of step up transformers? The complete lack of headphone amps marketed as step up transformers? Think about it.

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