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Concerned about my cart/pre pairing

Long story short..

I started with a Dyna DV20x2HIGH and a Dynaco PAS3x, then upgraded the pre to a Rogue RP-1. One day was cleaning my table and #%&%! up the needle, so I just coughed up the money for a new DV20x2LOW now that I had the Rogue's choice of higher gain setting for MC carts (58db). Purchased from a reputable local dealer. In reality when making the purchase I didn't know too much about how cart specs/phono stage gain, etc works (I'm just starting this HiFi journey), just went with what was suggested. Now, I notice that I really have to crank the preamp volume sometimes when listening to records and the output is definitely less than it was before. It still sounds good, but on the occasion I do crank the volume to near max (50-60 out of 60) I hear some noise in the upper ranges, maybe a little hiss. After doing some research about the subject I'm concerned that the 58db gain on the RP-1 might be too low for the 3mv rating on the cart, and I'm missing out on the best performance of the Dyna cart. Obviously when switching to my Bluesound NODE the volume output is WAY higher. 

So....at the end of the day I still enjoy the sound, but feel concerned about having to have the volume  so high, and wonder if I'm missing other things like detail, dynamics etc....or am I over thinking this?? Do I really have to invest in a new phono pre in the future? Was this not a good match?

Thanks in advance!
128x128jin78
lewm
13,048 posts
 

If you try using a SUT to solve your problem, keep in mind that you need to attach it to the moving magnet inputs of your phono stage, not the MC inputs..
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
@lewm, I think the OP can kill two birds with one stone by getting an active two way crossover for his subwoofers. It will cut the bass to his main speakers and add some more gain to the preamps output. 
jin78, check out MiniDSP I do believe they make such a crossover. It will improve your system performance quite a bit with less distortion in your main speakers, better subwoofer integration and more gain. 
As for as your phono stage is concerned the real limiting factor is the signal to noise ratio. If you are hearing noise I consider that to be a problem. I think it is unacceptable to hear any noise at the listening position at the highest levels you listen. If you hear noise then the solution is a quieter phono stage or a cartridge with higher output. 
Low output in a moving coil cartridge is an advantage because the coils are lighter (fewer turns) which gives better tracking and a higher resonance frequency pushing the high frequency response of the cartridge up higher. The problem is having to use a phono stage with high gain and a very low signal to noise ratio. These are obviously expensive. Moving Iron cartridges like the Grados and Soundsmiths have no such problem. With phono stages that have gain below 60 dB they are the superior choice IMHO. The are now some excellent moving magnet cartridges from Audio Technica, Clearaudio, and Goldring that have performance comparable to many moving coil cartridges if not better in some ways. I have never heard a moving coil cartridge as dynamic as the Charisma from Clearaudio. I think any of these would be a better match for your system. IMHO moving coil cartridges are over rated and over priced. The ones that I really like are $5k and over, a lot of money for a perishable item. If you check out my system you will see that it is pretty serious stuff and I am more than happy with cartridges made by any of the above, so much so that I have sold all my moving coil cartridges!
lewm
13,048 posts
 
Yeah, well it’s always easy to tell someone to invest $$$ to solve a specific problem. I did suggest that an electronic crossover with a high pass filter would help, no doubt. So would a different preamp with more total gain. So would a cartridge with higher output. And so would a SUT.
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