Is Coincident Statement Phono pre-amp an overkill

Hi Lewm,

Actually the line stage on Coincident Phono is better than direct CD player connection to the Coincident power amp (which has its own volume control).
The bass and "weight" of the music came back and "deflation" caused by lack of pre-amp has vanished.

Burn-in will take some time. Then I will know if I can live without an active line-stage (fingers crossed).

The line-stage in the phono does not have any gain however its not passive.

Am trying to figure out a MC Cartridge for Clearaudio Concept, which is proving to be a challenge (i do not want to get the clearaudio mc cart).

Interesting update.

Enjoy your new preamp!

I've had my Coincident phono stage for about 2 years, and I like it a LOT. As I've upgraded my turntable, my tonearm(s), and my cartridge(s), I've never had the slightest urge to upgrade my phono stage.

After being advised by a fellow audiophile in Europe that the weak link in this unit is the volume control, I sent it to Bill Thallman in Springfield, VA to bypass the internal volume control and I now run it into an Emia (Slagel designed) passive attenuator that feeds my tube monoblocks. And it sounds just great.

This has been an interesting thread. It explored a topic we all are involved in, kind of a universal process for all of us. I go with the theory of get a piece, a really good one, that you can build your reference around. There are very few of us who wouldn't feel pretty good about a Coincident Linestage. Congratulations!