What Does It Take To Surpass A SME V?

Mijostyn, how do you know he’ll need to set the gain to “high”? And what is high on the BMC? 0, 7, and 14db are offered. With my ZYX UNIverse, which puts out 0.24mV and has a 4 ohm internal resistance, the 0db setting is robust. That’s with my linestage adding about 15 db of gain. The Verismo puts out 0.2mV with internal R = 7 ohms, roughly half the current output of the Uni. So, depending upon linestage gain, the input sensitivity of the amplifier, and speaker efficiency, I would guess 0db or +7db would be the sweet spot. Anyway, he can come over to my house in Bethesda to compare notes.

The owner of the BMC used an Ortofon Anna with this phono stage and has output set at 0 dB, RIAA, and bass functions off. I will be starting at those settings since they worked for him with a similar cartridge. 

Anyways this whole project will take a bit, the arm is shipped and set of arrive maybe even today. The arm board is coming from Canada so that is going to be 7 days or so. The phono stage from Georgia and it ships today, so another 7 days or so. 

Your system may differ from that of the BMC seller in terms of downstream gain factors, but  I agree you’ll most likely be ok at the 0db setting, as noted above. If not then it’s easy to switch to the 7db setting.

Well the phono stage arrived safely today. It certainly is a large and solid piece of gear. Beautiful fit and finish too. It is in the rack and powered up now. Have to wait until the Schroder arm shows up though. Well, actually i did get an Audio Sensibility tone arm cable with XLR ends, I could install it on the SME V and play it that way if I wanted to. But I can be patient till the new arm gets here. 

I keep mine powered up at all times, with the MUTE switch engaged when it’s not in use.