Phonostage Advice

Just looking at specs, you’re probably going to be hurting for gain with the 0.3mV Dynavector and only 52dB of MC phono stage gain (in the specs they add the 11dB of line stage gain to get 63dB total gain). Probably sounds like it lacks dynamics right now. And in MM mode (e.g. to use with an MC SUT) you would have a phono stage consisting of two 12AU7 tubes, gross. Sometimes a phono card can be a good deal since you’re leveraging the chassis and big PSU of the main component (VAC preamps’ optional tube phono stages are fantastic), but in this case it doesn’t look too good. I think a 1500 stand-alone stage can beat that, especially used. It will be mostly SS units in that price range, but even then a good one with more than 60dB gain should be a better match for your cartridge than that under-powered card - you’ll at least get dynamics back.

In the top page of phono stage listings right now, there is a Fosgate Signature, Parasound JC3, and Sutherland PHD in your price range.

One 12AX7 and one 12AU7 for 63db. doesn’t appear to lack dynamics, but then again I havent compared so maybe I dont know what I am missing lol.

Modwright is adding the 11dB line stage gain from the 6SN7’s, which I think is deceiving. So if you had an outboard phono stage with an actual 63 dB of gain, you’d get a net gain of 74 dB. My experience pairing under-0.5mV cartridges with phono stages below 60 dB (and in your case 0.3mV paired with 52 dB) has not been good, regardless of the gain in downstream line stage (and I usually have more than 11dB in my line stages). So my answer to your query is - definitely yes, I think you can do a lot better with 1500 into an outboard stage.