Gain Question

the mm vs mc thread can be found at
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1200430667&read.

The vinyl sound is enjoyable at present but every once in a while there is that specific cut that you would just like to boost a little bit and I don't have that option.

Which prompts a further thought. Records are cut at different levels. If you sense that those specific recordings are cut at lower than average levels perhaps a gain increase (via a different cartridge, or tube rolling, or some other means) would help, without changing to a more powerful amp.

Contrasted with that, though, would be the situation where you want to increase the volume setting due to the recording having very wide dynamic range. An example being well recorded symphony orchestra, where the average level may be fairly low, but brief orchestral peaks very high. If that is the type of recording you find yourself wanting to turn up higher, more power may be called for, to prevent clipping on the peaks.

Good luck!

-- Al

I just found an MM, Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood cartridge from a table I purchased that is long gone. I think I'll give it a spin to see how it compares. Should be interesting. I'm sure the gain will be there but sound quality???

Actually, I don't know that it will get you that much more gain, considering you will need to run it through your MM input and not your MC input of your Herron. The cartridge will put out a higher signal, but your phono stage will lose about 20 db of gain switching from MC to MM. It could help a little overall though, it's certainly worth a try.

Cheers,
John

You don't "need" to run the MM into the MM input. You could try it into the MC as long as the phono stage has enough headroom. It would not be ideal since the MC input wouldn't have the capactive loading that the MM wants to see so not a permanent fix but an interesting experiment that can do no harm. As long as it doesn't clip, or maybe even if it does a little it would answer the question of whether or not you have enough gain prior to the amp. If you use the extra 20dB of the MC input AND it doesn't grossly clip AND that gives you the volume you are looking for then you would know the amp is capable as long as it gets a bigger input signal. If it is loud enough then you need to get the gain somewhere else. You're not going to find a phono stage with significantly more gain so that leaves a higher gain preamp if you want to keep the amp, or an amp with higher sensitivity, or a combination of the two.

Many preamps have gains over 20dB which looks to me to be the ultimate solution as long as 120 watts is enough to get the speakers where you want them, and I suspect it is. . You could also search the classifieds for a fair price on a preamp with 20+ dB of gain and try it. You can sell it if it is not the sound you want but that would also answer the gain question.
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