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Manley Chinook - setting for Ortofon Quintet Black S

I am interested in advice.

I have a VPI Classic 2 turntable (10.5 tonearm) with an Ortofon Quintet Black S cartridge.  Using a Morrow Audio Ph6 phono interconnect (1 meter long).

I recently purchased the Manley Chinook phono pre-amp, which has many options including, gain, load capacitance, and resultant load.

Your personal recommendation on set-up would be greatly appreciated.

  1. What would you suggest I set for 45db or 60db gain? 
  2. What would you suggest load capacitance be set at?
    • 0pF, 50pF, 100pF, 150pF, 200pF, 250pF, 300pF, 350pF
  3. What would you suggest resultant load be set at?  
    • 26ohm, 30ohm, 40, 50,80, 115, 160, 265, 397, 47000
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mulveling's avatar
mulveling
1,895 posts
 

I don’t have a Quintet but have used several similar Ortofon MCs. You definitely want 60dB over 45dB. But even 60 is a bit too low for that 0.3mV output, imho. The "Special Edition" Chinook from Upscale appears to add a 65dB gain mode which would be PERFECT for 0.3mV. That 5dB can make the difference between nice but slightly lifeless / anemic playback and exciting playback.

Capacitance should generally be kept to a minimum for MC cartridges. Try 0. It won’t actually be 0 (you phono cables have capacitance), but you want as close that that as possible.

With Ortofons like yours I would usually prefer either the 50 or 80 ohms loading. Try both. But either of these settings should sound good.

lewm
13,010 posts
 

Anything over 50 ohms load resistance could reasonably be used without important compromise to performance.  It's a matter of taste.

testpilot
925 posts
 

As long as your preamp has around 12-15db of gain and your amp has an average input sensitivity of around 2v, the Manley’s  60db setting will be fine with your cartridge. 

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