Problem with phono stage


Hello Fellow Audiogoners,

I need help with my Phono stage. It is Lehman Audio Black Cube from Germany.  It was recommended from Simao, a very respected Audiogon member who helped me a lot when I was building my stereo. It costs 450$ brand new which I bought used from this site. Michael Fremer considers it one of the best steals in phono stages. I get a little bit better detail and bass extension BUT it also much noisier. I can hear the pops and any other noises  on the records much more then with the phono stage of my Arcam FMJ 28 which turned out to be a surprisingly good one considering it is an integrated one.
I also switched the cables but the noise is still there.
Is this a common problem with added phono stages as opposed to integrated ones or something is wrong with my phono and needs to be checked.

All help will be greatly appreciated.
Emil


emilm
The MP is Moving Permalloy, not exactly Moving Magnet
Find the difference

Here is J.Carr comment about MP:

"The operating principle would be that of a moving iron but with increased sensitivity, which could be used alternatively to increase output, reduce moving mass, or decrease inductance. "   






Nagaoka makes a pretty good cartridge especially for the money. You buy one, you screw it up into your tonearm, set your phono stage up right and enjoy the tunes. It has nothing to do with stroking one's ego discussing issues that have very little relevance to 90% of us. Moving iron, moving permalloy, moving magnet. They are all capable of sounding perfectly fine and much more alike than not.
The OP wanted to know if he could reduce the noise in his vinyl playback system. Phono stage overload, loading and lower capacitance cables have been mentioned. Does anyone have other ideas for emilm to try? 
Chakster, I guess the "operating principle" of the MP cartridges is not being used to "decrease inductance", per JCarr's summation, because the MP110 has very high inductance according to any info I can find on the internet.  The operating principle seems to be used to increase output, because the output of the MP110 is MM-like, even if it's not an MM cartridge.  So we have an IM cartridge that measures like an MM, both in voltage output and (high) inductance.
Raul, if the MP110 has inductance of ~800mH, as per VE discussion groups, then its resonance can fall well below 20kHz, if capacitance and R are not adjusted to prevent that.  And Mijostyn, if the foregoing is true, then it does help the OP to understand why ticks and pops may seem prominent, and it gives him some idea what to do about it.
To paraphrase Albert Einstein, it's good to keep things simple, but not so simple that a valid hypothesis is ignored.
A quick look at online pictures shows opamps in use in the Black Cube.  Now there are different black cubes so I may not be looking at the right one.

I used mine with Sound Smith Moving Iron and other MM carts.  I had no issues.

As to feedback it can be employed with opamps as well as transistors.  Opamps are easier to set the gain and have good common mode rejection ratios.  Transistors have to be matched.  So in lower costs products, opamps are more likely to be used.

Looking at pics of the Arcam R phono it is also using opamps.

For those that don't know how to spot a opamp look for a black square with 8 legs near the input jacks.  The part number also tends to start with OP.

A slower opamp will also be less noisier, smoother and a bit less detail.

Gain depends on the number of stages but typically expect a gain of 40 to 60 on the first stage.  That gets the signal out of the mud and allows the common mode rejection to come into play to reject noise.

IV phonos also typically use a opamps.  A resistor in series to the signal sets the current which is then gained up by the opamp. 

You can find lots of literature from Texas Instruments.

As to the debate of whether opamps, transistors, or tubes are better that is a a different subject.  There are good and bad examples of each method.

I still would address the record cleaning issue.

That is it for me.  I will leave the navel gazing to others.
Well this escalated quickly, from the last few posts I think of use for the OP Mijostyn summarized

Phono stage overload, loading and lower capacitance cables have been mentioned. Does anyone have other ideas for emilm to try?


I would add if the cable in addition to low capacitance can have some shielding (always low capacitance listed by the manufacture of the cable with the shielding included) if you go DIY shielding results could be unpredictable.