The ARC phono stage with your cartridge is outputting 2.7 volts to the line stage. This is more than enough to drive your amps w/o the linestage. Adding the gain of the linestage, you now have a whopping 38 volts of output to drive the amps at full tilt. You need to either change out the cartridge to match the phono stage or change the phono stage the match the cartridge. I wouldn't mess around trying to mod the phono stage - who knows how that will sound.
Two suggestions. Clearaudio has a reasonable trade up program. Look for a model that has output less than 1.0mv. That should take care of the problem. On the other side of the coin, I would consider looking at a Aesthetix Rhea. It will work well woth your line stage and you get variable gain with the ability to voice it as you like by tube selection.
Two suggestions. Clearaudio has a reasonable trade up program. Look for a model that has output less than 1.0mv. That should take care of the problem. On the other side of the coin, I would consider looking at a Aesthetix Rhea. It will work well woth your line stage and you get variable gain with the ability to voice it as you like by tube selection.