Artemis Labs Ph-1 owners.....


To all who own the Artemis Labs Ph-1 phono stage, would you please share which cartridges you have used to good effect and whether you used it straight in or with a step-up transformer. If you happened to use a step-up transformer, which one and the turns ratio would be of great interest to me.

Thank you for participating in the survey.

Best regards,
Don
no_regrets

Showing 2 responses by thom_at_galibier_design

Happy New Year,

Dave got it right as far as gain structure, of course, most everything I learned about gain, I learned from him.

The PH-1 is somewhat odd, living between an MC and MM level - at 52dB. MM phono stages typically come in at 36-40dB and MC stages are typically in the 60 dB range.

1:10 is the most you'd need, but surely 1:13 will work in some system contexts. No doubt, Dave was listening through in iteration of his very fine, passive TVC and so all of the gain came from the SUT and phono stage.

The Artemis is not the quietest phono stage on the block, and while it was never a disqualifying event for me, it might bother some folks more than others. It this describes you, then I'd opt for the higher side on the step-up ratio (e.g. 1:10, 1:13) - assuming a low output MC.

You'd do well to hop onto Dave's forum, and if his very fine SUTs interest you, there are likely some folks who would assemble a pair into a workable box (Dave sells raw parts). At one time, Jeffery Jackson of Experience Music was assembling trannies for folks who purchased SUTs from Dave. I maintain a link to Intact Audio on my links page, but here's the direct link: http://www.intactaudio.com/.

No commercial interest in this recommendation - just recommending an outstanding product for your consideration.

So ... what cartridge? It's really about what you like and what mates well with your tonearm. In general, I've always liked the Dynavectors, Denon DL-103r (and of course the Soundsmith rebuild), Benz (medium or low output).

Don't limit yourself by these recommendations. It's more about what your favorite cartridge is.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier
Quick follow-up ...

The .2mv to .6mv range would be a good working number when using a 1:10 SUT, but your entire system gain structure needs to be taken into account.

If you work your way into the say, 1.0mv range, (high o-p MC) you'll be on the threshold not needing a SUT (depending on everything else in your gain structure, along with your sensitivity to system noise - I can't be inside your ears to advise you on this one).

There are some recently archived threads on the topic of system gain on this forum, and in one of those threads, I posted a link to a thread on my forum - about evaluating your system's gain structure numerically (only a starting point, but it gives you a baseline).

Cheers,
Thom