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CONUNDRUM

I'm fairly new to vinyl. In my haste to put together a fairly nice front end, I have created a mis-match between my cart, phono stage and my linestage. I have a Clearaudio Maestro cart feeding a ARC PH-7 feeding an Aesthetix Calypso. The PH-7 is over driving the Caypso with no way to reduce the output without sacrificing quality of sound. (attentuators don't work. In dropping the output, they also compromise the signal quality)) I can go to a low output MC coil cart, or change one of my preamps. I'm looking for a WARM sound with all the usual qualities one would want in a good sounding system. The MC cart seems like the way to go, but the $$ keeps piling up as it so often does in this hobby. Suggestions please.
handymann
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tdaudio
201 posts
 
I am confident Stringreen is correct in that if you call ARC, there would be an option to replace two or four fixed resistors that would change the gain by at least 12 db (I don't know if that would be enough but its a fair amount) if not more. Thats a job I would do myself and any tech could do in minnutes. I would hope that there could be 18 to 24 db of reduction with no problem.

Keep the old resistors and it can be easily restored. And it would be cheap to do.
TD
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
TD is most likely correct, but if ARC says no, then I would go w Jcarr's advice. He designs some of the best carts out there and is a frequent and generous contributor to these forums. Just make sure you use good quality resistors. But I am pretty sure you will find that you can change the resistance internally to the phono stage.
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Second Swampwalker and Jcarr, but I would still ask ARC and Tom, FWIW.
elevick
2,636 posts
 
For fun, do you have any 12au7's around? The PH-7 uses 12ax7's, correct? Try the lower gain tube? If not 12ax7's, which tube does it use?
handymann OP
380 posts
 
I think I may go with a Koetsu Urushi MC cart. Any comments?
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