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Finally bought a new Turntable!

Hello All,
Well I done did it now, I bought myself a new Turntable.
After much research and talking back and forth on forums, looking at various models, I finally decided on a Mofi Studiodeck with the Hana SL MC Cartridge.
I bought it from a local Hi-Fi shop that gave me a 10% discount on the table and a 15% discount on the cart.
I have only had about a week so far and have not had a chance to play a much music yet. Just a few tracks here and there.
This does bring me to a question that I have for the community.

After initially playing a few tracks, I felt I had to turn up the volume a bit more compared to b4 when playing the same tracks on my Denon DP-300f, which seemed to have a bigger impact at lower volumes.

I had the shop configure my Phono Pre-Amp (Sim Audio 110lp V2) and the gain was set to 60db.

I set it to 66db and RIAA Curve. I think that improved the sound a bit more.
But what I want to know, for the particular cart that I have on the table, what are the other recommended settings?
I know the manufacturer have their suggested settings and ultimately, I probably have to try different settings and play a lot of music until I feel I have found the sweet spot but wanted to ask you all if you have any suggestions or opinions.
One other very specific question that I have is, Does making changes to the phono pre-amp have any negative effects on the system? Meaning, could I potentially do any harm to the system?
I appreciate any feedback.
128x128jay73
lewm
13,111 posts
 
No effect until you get near to or below the internal resistance of the cartridge.
lewm
13,111 posts
 
The load resistance effects the phono section so possibly Sim knows their design goes unstable at 47K, but otherwise what they wrote is hogwash. If you like it, it’s good. A sign of instability would be exaggerated ticks and pops.
hdm
1,062 posts
 
Seems like most Audiogoners like a whack of gain with their MC cartridges. 

With most systems with an active linestage/preamp upstream I would likely find that 66 dB of gain with a .5 mV cartridge would make my ears bleed. I'm using around that, or perhaps 1 or 2 dB more with a .18 mV cartridge and around 60 dB with a .35 mV cartridge. I have the ability to increase gain easily with both cartridges and don't as they simply do not sound as good with more gain. 

OP's phono stage only has ability to load at 10/100/475 and 47K so the likely load setting choices are 475 or wide open at 47K with the Hana SL. 

Louder is not always better, although it's often initially perceived that way. 

If I was the OP I'd give a really hard listen to the 60 db setting again, ignoring entirely where you need to have the volume set on the linestage as long as you can achieve desired SPL's. 


jay73's avatar
jay73 OP
219 posts
 
I want to make sure I understand something clearly, some of you are referring to line stage?

Could you define that?

The output of my phono preamp goes to the input of my integrated amp (one of the inputs).

Is the input considered the line stage?

Thnx
slaw's avatar
slaw
21,644 posts
 
A linestage is basically just a control center. A integrated is a control center plus an amplifier. (sometimes a phono stage is included) in one unit.
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