Older Yamaha av receiver with phono.....

The phono stage on my 1995-era Yamaha DSP-A1, is rated for moving magnet or high output moving coils (2.5mv) and has been effective with a Moth Alamo (Rega P2 clone) using a Rega Elys moving magnet cartridge. Similar listening levels requires an extra hour on the Yamaha volume control, 10 o'clock (vinyl) instead of 9 o'clock (cd's).

After just getting back into vinyl myself, I would recommend getting a turntable with dealer or factory installed cartridge. I ended up doing it myself (with a lot of forum reading) and am happy with the results, however the turntable setup tools do start adding up.

For upgading, maybe someone has a suggestion or price point for a phono stage which would be a stepup from the onboard Yamaha.

Hope that helps.

Zorgee, depends highly on what you want to spend. There are others who can probably give a lot more options in this regard, but I know of a few (speaking only to those I have heard myself).

On the relatively lower end there is the NAD PP-2 which can be had for about $125 used. There are the Creek OBH-8 (MM) and OBH-9 (MC) for a bit more and they are very good for the money.

Going up a bit to $500-700 there is the Lehmann Black Cube (which is very versatile), the Graham Slee, and one that I think is just super for the dough, the Dynavector P-75 (around $600).

I'm sure others will pipe in with resepct ot others I haven't heard like the Phonomena, etc.

I used the phono stage on my 90's vintage Yamaha AV 470 (or some such) for quite a while and when I replaced the internal phono stage with a Monolithic PS-1 phono stage (and upgraded power supply) the difference on MM cartridges was very slight indeed.

However, when I replaced the AV receiver with a NAD C320BEE the difference was day and night. And THEN the PS-1 phono stage was a necessary component.

Paul Green