I don’t think a phono cartridge to phono stage is close to -10dB.
@holmz @lohanimal There was no mention of gain of the phono preamp (input vs output). If the phono preamp has a RCA line output, then that output is generally speaking rated at -10 dBV (just like any other RCA output). If it has a balanced XLR output, then that output generally speaking is probably rated at +4 dBV (just like any other balanced XLR output). That’s the general consensus of RCA vs XLR outputs. Now of course the voltage of those two outputs will vary, but if we're going to categorize RCA and XLR outputs, that's how they're categorized (-10 dBV & +4 dBV respectively).