preamp help

No thoughts?

Don't know JD9/JD9II differences. All use tubes in their circuitry to varying degrees. I believe the Bellari will work with MM or HOMC only and is not adjustable; the Jolida (JD9) is a variable gain MM or MC pre with very flexible loading options.

Both are respected and recommended within the context of what they do and price point.

If you look at Jolida's on-line store, the JD9 MKII isn't listed. I don't think it's been released yet. The original JD9 is significantly better than the Bellari. They aren't even close comparisons.

I hate to be negative, but I've owned lots of budget phono preamps and the Bellari was one of the worst in terms of performance and musical enjoyment. It only has 30 dB of gain which is barely enough to run a 5 mV cartridge. Ideally it needs 7 mV output.

In my opinion, the JD9 is one of the best bangs for the buck for phono stages. This is especially true for $289 direct from Jolida.

What cartridge do you have?

So I have a grado gold cart. Is this why I'm not getting the volume with the bellari? When I run through the bellari I have to turn the volume up to 12 o'clock as opposed to 7 o'clock with my CD player.