Moving coil transfprmer?

Bbaxley2,

Your experience exactly matches mine. With the Monolithic and 103R I was running right at 12 noon on the volume control, and it sounded great. Thom is exactly right - just enough gain is way preferable to too much gain. I wouldn't change out the Monolithic just to add a few dB; if you feel the need to upgrade, concentrate on sonics. You'll have to go a ways to better the Monolithic.

David

what is a good cart to use other than the denon103 with a little more output,that dont set me back alot

Trust us on the gain issue Bbaxley2.

If you have to 'burn off gain' by keeping your volume pots at 9 or 10 o'clock, this means that you are passing signal through more of the pot as well as more resistance - a higher proportion of say, for example a 50K pot.

Even if you you have a ladder type stepped attenuator this too is generally a bad thing as the single resistor value will also be a large proportion of the pot's nominal value.

Resistance is futile (grin).

Your comments lead us to believe that you're just fine with anything in the .3mv to .5mv range.

Choices are too numerous and I'd hesitate to advise you on this.

Tell us what you don't like about the Denon.

As an aside, I'm pondering having Peter at Sound-Smith re-tip my Denon, but that's a subject of a whole 'nuther thread. Please note, I have no commercial interest in chatting up the Sound-Smith re-tips, but at the same time, I've heard nothing of is fine work that would lead me to believe that it won't be a significant upgrade.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

Interesting discussion about slightly more than just enough gain being best.

My new Tron Seven phono stage (once it's hooked in), may end up having a bit too much gain for runing the volume of my pre at something close to unity gain.

My Atma-sphere amps are so scalable, I may end up pulling out enough tubes to lower gain to that sweet spot I am looking to be at on the volume control.

That was actually what was so amazing about the varible gain of the GCC100 amp (that I now use on my woofers), since it varies the gain of the amp rather than shunt extra signal to ground, no volume control provided better transparency. I am tempted to try PS Audio;s gain cell pre amp.

When I use a low-output MC, I employ the Quicksilver MC Transformer. Prefer it over my (active) PS Audio MCA2.