How good is phono stage in Musical Fidelity A300?

Slate 1

Just noticed your system in your signature.
Nice. Nice TT setup also.

I actually found the noise floor to be lower using the built in phono-amp as well. The CI-Audio was quiet enough though and the difference wasn't huge. I often wondered if this was due to the added cabling necessary to run an external phono-amp.

I've used that calculator on KAB before too - it's great to have resources like that available. You're right - when playing around with buying MC's I've always found the low-output ones to calculate out better with the A300 than the high-output MC's. i.e. better to use a .25mv and the MC stage than a 2.5mv and the MM stage.

I would agree that you'd have to spend more than $500 to better the A300's built-in sound to a degree that it would be worth the expense. The one exception would be if you required more control over loading and gain.

Thanks for the compliment on the system - it's been a long running project finding equipment I really feel satisfied with and I'm on a fairly tight budget. I'm finally at a point though where I've stopped thinking about upgrading anything other than playing around with different cartridges - which is half the fun of vinyl!

Slate 1 -

Thanks for the info on the MF A300 and your experience comparing it to different external preamps.
I think I may sit tight for now.

I don't think that the Dynavector is really too fussy as far as the loading and gain, but I might just try another cartridge to compare for fun.
As it breaks in it gets a little better sounding each day.
This is a really nice sounding pickup.

Yes, the journey is the fun in this crazy hobby!

I just ordered an Audio-Technica OC9ML/II from lpgear today. I've been wanting to try one out for a while - I'll let you know how it works with the A300.

Have Fun!

Have fun. A lot of people suggested that one, the Denon 103r, and the Dynavector 10X5 as great MC values.