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Best phono pre amp for Lyra Helikon

I am at the stage where TT/tonearm/cartridge have been decided and almost procured and am ready to select Phono preamp. What is the best match for this cartridge? My main premap and Amps are Classe. Will the tubed phono would be desirable?

Few that I myself considering is Art Audio, EAR, Manley Steelhead or Tom evans Groove (These are also the ones that gets sold quickly here at Agon. May be that is one indication ;-)) But any advice would be welcome.

The TT/Tone Arm is La Luce by SPJ.

Thx in advance.
nilthepill

Showing 2 responses by willster

willster
66 posts
 
Thomasheisig,
A previous thread in the analog list discussed the correct loading for a Helikon and the general consensus was a rule of thumb loading of 25 times the output impedance of the cartridge. In the case of the Helikon that would be 137.5 ohms ballpark.

I am also loading my Helikon at 47K. I think I must have gotten this value from the literature that came with the cartridge. Looking on the Lyra website, the Helikon is spec'd to a range of 100 ohms to 47K ohms. I haven't tried any other loadings with my Helikon and am anxious to get home and experiment a little.

How did you arrive at 47K?
willster
66 posts
 
I went home to experiment with the loading on my Helikon which I had been using at 47K. My phono is currently set up for 100, 200, 1K, and 47K.

The 25 x output impedance suggests 137.5 ohms.

I tried 200 and there was a little more bass but the sound was uninvolving, no punch or energy. I tried 1K and that brought back the energy quite a bit. However, at that setting, it seemed that some records sounded great and others didn't. The ones that didn't had an almost "out of phase" kind of sound. The music didn't project out into the listening room the way I thought it should.
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