Which Mono Cartridge at around $1,300.00?

Right dead on Lewm. It's even recommended by ASR engineer Herr Schaefer that one uses the least amount of gain possible in order to reduce noise which to me just seems like practical sense. For my ears, I want clarity, balance, neutrality but I don't want sound waves blaring and bouncing around in my flat. Currently with the Grado ME+, I have the gain set at +12 db which I thought would be too high but it was at that setting when the music came out from under its rock. There is nothing to gain (no pun intended) by increasing it. I'm that way with my QUAD 2905's as well, once I step up to that place then its fine.

I would be interested in Al's thoughts on this, but my subjective impression is that with an "excess" of gain and the attenuator therefore in action, background noise typically seems to be lower (and dynamics much better) than when the gain setting is closer to the "minimum" necessary such that the attenuator is essentially out of the picture (meaning one has to turn the volume control nearly all the way up for adequate SPLs). I am not saying that my attenuator or any attenuator enhances sound quality; I am saying that the sense of musical ease and background silence seems superior with an excess of gain, or maybe what I am describing could better be thought of as the "correct" amount of gain. There is a lack of strain and better S/N, subjectively. This is a subjective judgement, not based on actual measurements of S/N. I know there are a lot of purists who would like to build equipment with "just enough" gain so as to obviate even the need for an attenuator; I don't hear it that way.

Hi Lew,

I doubt that it’s possible to generalize in a meaningful way, as every design is different, and has its own set of tradeoffs.

One thing that would seem safe to say, though, is that the signal-to-noise ratio of the signals that are ultimately presented to the speakers, and hence the amount of background hiss that is heard, can’t be any better than what it is at the front end of the signal path, which is to say the ratio of the output voltage of the cartridge to the noise that is present in the circuitry at the front end of the phono stage (aside from common mode noise that may be rejected if the phono stage is balanced). Noise that is present at that point will, along with signal, be amplified by every amplification stage that follows, and the signal level at that point will be lower than at every subsequent point in the chain.

A key factor with respect to your question, that I don’t have a specific feel for, is how much variation there will tend to be in the S/N performance of an adjustable gain phono stage as its gain is adjusted. My guess is that in general if the gain setting is increased by X db, while remaining within reasonable bounds relative to the cartridge output, the S/N performance of the phono stage will degrade by considerably less than X db, and perhaps not at all in some cases. That would be consistent with your observations concerning background noise, because if the gain setting can be increased without significant S/N degradation at that point in the signal path, the lessened significance of noise generated by downstream circuit stages, between that point and the volume control (relative to the increased signal level at those points), might result in a net improvement in S/N. It would also lessen the impact of noise that may be picked up at the interface between the phono stage and the preamp, as a result of ground loop or RFI/EMI effects.

But of course it might be a completely different story if what is being compared are DIFFERENT phono stages, whose gains also differ by X db, but whose S/N performances are not similar.

As far as dynamics are concerned, a number of additional unpredictable variables may come into play. One of those is the distortion performance of the various circuit stages in the chain, and how that distortion performance is affected by signal level. You may have seen Ralph (Atmasphere) comment in the past, in a different context (that of SET amplifiers), that since the 5th, 7th, and 9th harmonics of a note's fundamental frequency are significant determinants of our perception of loudness, an increase in those distortion components that occurs primarily on high volume transients will result in a subjective perception of increased dynamics. Since line level and phono level stages almost always operate Class A, and consequently there is no crossover distortion that would assume greater significance as signal level decreases, it seems possible that the effect he described could occur in those stages, as a result of the increase in non-linearity that may occur at high signal levels. So in some cases an increase in perceived dynamics might be the result of low level odd harmonic distortion produced by the circuit stages preceding the volume control, when those stages are asked to handle higher level signals as a result of a gain increase further upstream.

Perhaps Jonathan or Ralph will comment further on your question, as I’m sure they could speak to it more knowledgeably than I can.

Best regards,
-- Al

I made my statement in terms of generalities, but your response serves to remind me that I am speaking from my very limited personal experience of comparing my MP1 (pre- and post-modification) to various other phono stages that I have actually had in my home. And perhaps there are some aural memories of the sound of other phono stages I have owned prior to the MP1 that also contribute to the formulation of my statement (which, being subjective, was not really a question, but I am glad you treated it as such). I dislike analogies because of their inevitable flaws, but one that rings reasonably true for me is how it feels to drive a Yugo at 30 mph vs how it feels to drive a Ferrari at 30 mph. The two are equally adequate for driving 30 mph, but with the Ferrari, if you need to change speed in a hurry, the reserves are there for you to hit 100 mph with no sense of effort. The Yugo will protest mightily if you try to take it up to 50 mph. The stressed low-gain phono stage will tend to sound thin and a bit more distorted when pushed to its limits, and noise inherent to its circuitry will be closer to the surface. That's the way I hear it. That's why I put a lot of thought into attenuators; the attenuator quality will become very critical in my way of thinking.

On second thought(s), I don't much care for my analogy. There are problems with it.