Preamp Deal of the Century

Anyone have any idea of the typical gain delivered by the stage in the Syrah ?
Mick replied with an explanation about pre/power matching etc but no figures & try a higher output cartridge.
I set my Syrah's gain to the highest I can without any tube rush and surface noise is a real pain with any of my tables.
I put them thru the Quicksilver step up & stage and the surface noise vanishes
to my mind that means the Quicksilver has more gain?
Not keen to buy a higher output cartridge, I already went for broke on a zyx and went for the Syrah as it's supposed to be ideal for low outputmc's. I didn't think 0.24mV was mega low in any case.
I love the pre and the internal phonostage is fine if just
a bit overhyped imo but I really hate hearing surface noise
to this extent when it's never been a problem in my system before now.
Anyone know if it's possible to change resistors or the like to up the gain in the Syrah??
Rgds Simon

Hello Simon,

I am using a Denon 103R (0.25mV). My Chenin was set to Low gain. The phono section currently have the Mullard M8080 and Siemens 6922. I have plenty of gain! The phono gain knobs(pair) are just 1/3 setting and I can get 89 to 90 dB SPL with the linestage volume control to almost half. That is a lot! I have no tube rush or hum. I can put the phono knobs at max (both) and linestage max and cannot hear the hiss (all tubes does you are right) at about 4 feet away from a 90-91 dB sensitivity midrange driver actively driven of my Orions. If I placed my ear next to the speakers, yes there's some tube rush but no hum. That's it.

I think, its either you have a very noisy phono tubes or the FET input is out of whack. Just my opinion of course.

Goodluck

Hello Simon74,

I have the ZYX Yatra cartridge with .24mv in my system with my Supratek Cortese. I have more than enough gain with no noise problems. Granted the phono stage is not as quiet as some ss phono preamps, but it is much more musical than most. Pretty much the same way LP's may not be as quiet as cd's, but I find them to be much more musical.

Simon,

I'm also running a Denon 103R at 0.25mv on my Syrah, and I have more gain than I would ever use, and the hum and tube rush are both non-noticable when music is playing.

It sounds like something fishy...

Simon74, Slowhand, Amandarae Thanks very much for the valuable advise. I will play around with a few cords.

I took Amandarae's tip on the Sovetek KT66 tubes & got a pair 3 days back from Tube Store. WOW ! I simply did not expect this much improvement. The difference is more than my move to the expensive W.E.300B tubes for my amps. There are improvements in ALL areas of the sound. I too use horns, Mauhorns/Lowthers. Makes me wonder if my previous EH6L6 stock tubes were dying out!

This again makes me think that all Tubes equipment users
should have a Tube Tester handy( I don't have one ). Any ideas on where I can find one which does 300B, 6SN7 etc? This may also be a good business idea if someone can market a 'new production' cheap tube tester!
Cheers,