Phono Stage Gain - how does it impact sound?

I had a TZ Vibe for audition and also found it very quiet, but lean and somewhat steely sounding. Admittedly, I only had it for 10 days or so, but I was just uncomfortable with the sound. Exchanged it for a Heed phono stage and was very pleased. Not as dead quiet, but much fuller, more listenable sound to my ears.

@chayro never heard TZ Vibe. I don’t find the KC Vibe MkII lean and steely sounding at all. The sound is very engaging. 

Your original post described the bass as on the lighter side and lacking in impact. You can call it anything you like, but it’s still comes down to bottom-end issues. The TZ is one model up from the KC. FYI, Steve Gutenberg reviewed the much more expensive little Loco and also found it somewhat lacking in bass compared to his reference phono stage. So it may be something inherent in the line. 

I used Sonic Frontiers Phono 1 as my main stage for a while. Sweet sound, spec'd at 64dB but apparently measures around 60dB. There was a very clear line where cartridges ~ 0.45 - 0.5mV would sing with that stage. - full dynamics, good bass, balanced, sweet. Cartridges below that level would sound a bit lean, lacking dynamics, and slightly anemic in bass. Very unengaging. Those same cartridges did fantastic on other phono stages with more gain.

Of course I had plenty of preamp gain to compensate - it didn't help. You need to get the cartridge to phono stage match right first.

Maybe the 30W Pass amplifier is a little stressed driving 87db speakers. That’s where I’d look. You should be delivering more than adequate voltage to the amplifier. But again, I’d give the cartridge time to break in for best bass.