MC Phono Pre Gain

I second Roscoeiii's response. With an output of 0.15 mV, you'd need about 67 dB of gain from your phono pre, give or take a few dB depending on the gain of your line pre. That is a lot to ask of the phono stage, and noise does become an issue with lesser designs.

For .15mv you need something that has a lot of gain and is very clean. My first choice would most likely be an Ayre 5 series phono preamp. Its dead silent and it sounds great. The Ayre is good enough that you probably will never have to upgrade.

Use the KAB gain calculator to determine total gain and then look at how much gain you have in your line stage and amp, your room size and the noise floor. You also need to consider what velocity the Denon's output was measured at; some carts like ZYX are measured differently than typical and thus their output SEEMS lower that it really is.

It's hard to say specifically, because there are so many factors that come into play. How large is your room? How sensitive are your speakers? How loud do you listen? How much gain do your amp and line stage have?

All of that being said, I would probably recommend at least 60 dB of gain for your phono stage, possibly more, depending on your ancillary equipment, room size, and listening preferences.

I second several of the comments that have been made to the effect that not enough information has been provided. Most importantly, what is the gain of your line stage preamp, and what is the sensitivity of the power amp (i.e., the input voltage that is required to drive it to full power).

I would also emphasize the point made by ActusReus to the effect that equal gains provided by different designs are by no means necessarily equal in terms of their noise performance. For instance, while I would have high confidence in the Ayre phono stage that was suggested by Zd542, given his comments about its noise performance (as well as the knowledgeability of his component suggestions generally), I would not assume that other phono stages providing the same gain specifications are necessarily suitable.

Regards,
-- Al