Voltage mode vs current mode phono stages

@lewm , I already have the program so, yes I plan on trying it. But, I am ordering the RIAA board as back up. I should be able to do it with the equipment I have now as long as I do not get into a jitter war. Channel D recommends a combination ADC/DAC using the same clock. Their favorite is the Lynx HiLo. Nice unit but I would rather not have to buy one. I'm pretty sure digital correction will sound fine. The question is how much more of a pita is it going to be playing records that way vs the old fashioned way. You know I will be happy to forward my opinion.

Peter Ledermann related to me directly that his MI cartridges will not work well with a current mode phono stage. The high frequencies will be rolled off. He did not give me the reason why but I am sure it has something to do with inductance and impedance.

I don’t understand. If you order the Channel D with digital RIAA, then you have to supply your own outboard AD/DA converter? Or does the Seta output a digital signal that the user has to convert back to analog, or what?

Yes, the Grail is a very under-exposed amp.  I have had the SE for two years having auditioned it at home for three months against two other similarly priced units (COVID prevented the dealer taking it back).

There are three Grails.  SE is the middle one, perhaps a bit more towards the flagship than the base.  It can run single ended or balanced.  I run balanced from cartridge to power amp.

Grail has a good claim to be in the best sounding group of phono amps.  It manages to combine a near clinical accuracy with a musical presentation, which is rare in phono amps; one usually has to favour one or the other - as others have stated, warm or lean.

I won't be replacing it.

@clearthinker 

Supposedly, one purported advantage of the current based phono stages is that you don't need any loading.  Some literature on the Grail SE indicates that you have options for MC loading from 40-400 ohms; however, other discussion about the same phono stage says that you don't need to adjust loading, as it's done automatically through the circuit.  Which is correct? 
Thanks. 

@drbond 

Firstly my Grail is the SB, not SE, sorry.  I have had it about two years.

The model range is Grail, entry.  SB, separate power supply on umbilical, but same amplification circuitry.  SE, separate supply for each channel.  SE+, some selected components.  SB and SE can be run balanced or single-ended but input and output must be the same mode.  One might have presumed the SE is single-ended and SB balanced.  Not so.

The reading of the literature you mention is a mis-reading.  In the vdH specs it is stated that the current operation provides automatic matching for cartridges in the 40-400 ohms.  On the SE and SB there is the additional possibility of changing the capacitance by hard-wiring capacitors into the back of an XLR socket.  vdH suggests this might be done in the case of moving magnet cartridges but doesn't see the need on moving coils.

I have listened to a wide range of top-end MC cartridges on the SB and it works well with all of them.  It is priced at c.£14k in the UK, but I believe cheaper in the US.  In my estimation it is at least a match for amps selling at double that.  For instance I tried the Boulder and found that to be dry and over-clinical, analytic rather than musical compared with the SB.  I found it noticeably better than the AR Ref 3 and lesser ARs.