Will our MC for the festivities gain the stage?


Those of us who own preamps with phono stages are familiar with the phrase, “will handle MM cartridges and most MC cartridges”. The word “most” becomes critical when considering many of the low-output pickups available. My Kora Eclipse, for example, has separate MM and MC inputs and the MC stage is rated at .4mV/100ohm with a gain of 55dB. At what point is that 55dB gain insufficient to handle EFFICIENTLY a very low-output pickup? .5mV, .6mV? I know that it does depend upon actual output of the pickup and there are no hard and fast rules. I was given the following general guidelines some time ago which I post below. Does this seem like a good “rule of thumb” or is someone prepared to give it the finger, instead? Thanks.

0.2-0.5 mV needs 63dB gain
0.6-1.9 mV needs 50dB gain
2.0-5.0 mV needs 37dB gain
4yanx
I am not sure what I am geting from the line stage, Tom, but I will check. But, if I am getting the same 20dB as you are, then I would have a total of 75dB and be in the same "league", no?
Yes David, if your line stage provides 20db gain in addition to the 55db in your phono section, you'll be in the ballgame.
Just to continue my contrarian mood of the last few days. Won't loading have a very measurable effect on the suitability of a given cartridge for a phono stage? Output voltages are usually specced at best case conditions, meaning highest usable load resistance. If you choose a lower load resistance output will be compromised. My experience is somewhat limited in the matter. I hope that Tom will weigh in with more info.
Marty, I tried using the Shelter at 100 ohms, which is about the best load I found for it. It just didn't have enough "oomph" with my MFA preamp(66db total gain). The Shelter doesn't do as well when it is unloaded, in my opinion anyway.

I am hoping that David can get enough gain to get the right result with the 100 ohm loading that seems to work best with the Shelter. He is primarily talking about the Shelter cartridges in this question. I know, because we have talked off the forum about this.