CONUNDRUM

I think I may go with a Koetsu Urushi MC cart. Any comments?

If you take Mr. Carr's advice then you have to buy a Lyra ;)

Elevick, the PH-7, if modified by ARC, has 6 tubes: (4) 6922 tubes in the gain circuit; and (1) 6H30 tube and (1) 5881 tube in the PS. I don't think your idea has legs.

Handymann, the Koetsu is a very expensive cartridge, most models are in excess of $4K. Not sure, but there appears to be several Urushi models. Based on a very high-level check on the Needle Doctor web site, it appears the output voltages range between .2mV and .6mV. This class of cartridge appears to have a low compliance factor of 5.

Clearly, the Koetsu generates much less voltage than the Maestro. Therefore the PH-7's output should be less too.

If you want to try a LOMC, perhaps it would be prudent to try a cheap LOMC and see how it works. As I mentioned above, the PH-7 has a noise rating of 70db. It would be very unfortunate if the PH-7's output put out alot of noise with low output carty. I reiterate, it's worth a 15 min call to Calvin at ARC. He's in the best position to advise you.

I'm not 100% sure this will help, but here are a couple of things to consider:

From the Calypso manual : Note: The input circuitry of the Calypso accepts a maximum input voltage of 3.5v rms single-ended or 7v rms balanced. This is well above the industry standard 2v rms single- ended or 4v rms balanced. However, there are a few source components that exceed this limit. If the offending source component has a volume or gain control, all that is necessary is to reduce the gain or volume of the source component. In other cases, it will be necessary to have the source component modified to be within industry standard specifications. A clear indication that this limit is being exceeded is a raspy distortion or compression of musical peaks.

From another Audiogoner, on changing the gain of the Calypso:

To change the gain on the Calypso, turn power off for 20 mins, remove top, and locate jumper block for each channel. To find this, locate V2 tube (the left hand one), move right past a block of four resistors, and you should find the jumper block (just to left of two yellow capacitors). The jumper block has four positions, and if the Calypso is on high gain, there should be a shunt in the upper one and the lower one, with two empty positions in between. To change to low gain, move both shunts from the outside to the inside positions. Then repeat for the other channel.

Note: older versions (at least of the Janus) did not have this jumper block in which case obviously you can't adjust the gain. If in any doubt, email glenn@aesthetix.net and he can send you detailed instructions/diagrams,

The ARC phono stage with your cartridge is outputting 2.7 volts to the line stage. This is more than enough to drive your amps w/o the linestage. Adding the gain of the linestage, you now have a whopping 38 volts of output to drive the amps at full tilt. You need to either change out the cartridge to match the phono stage or change the phono stage the match the cartridge. I wouldn't mess around trying to mod the phono stage - who knows how that will sound.

Two suggestions. Clearaudio has a reasonable trade up program. Look for a model that has output less than 1.0mv. That should take care of the problem. On the other side of the coin, I would consider looking at a Aesthetix Rhea. It will work well woth your line stage and you get variable gain with the ability to voice it as you like by tube selection.