Finally bought a new Turntable!


Hello All,
Well I done did it now, I bought myself a new Turntable.
After much research and talking back and forth on forums, looking at various models, I finally decided on a Mofi Studiodeck with the Hana SL MC Cartridge.
I bought it from a local Hi-Fi shop that gave me a 10% discount on the table and a 15% discount on the cart.
I have only had about a week so far and have not had a chance to play a much music yet. Just a few tracks here and there.
This does bring me to a question that I have for the community.

After initially playing a few tracks, I felt I had to turn up the volume a bit more compared to b4 when playing the same tracks on my Denon DP-300f, which seemed to have a bigger impact at lower volumes.

I had the shop configure my Phono Pre-Amp (Sim Audio 110lp V2) and the gain was set to 60db.

I set it to 66db and RIAA Curve. I think that improved the sound a bit more.
But what I want to know, for the particular cart that I have on the table, what are the other recommended settings?
I know the manufacturer have their suggested settings and ultimately, I probably have to try different settings and play a lot of music until I feel I have found the sweet spot but wanted to ask you all if you have any suggestions or opinions.
One other very specific question that I have is, Does making changes to the phono pre-amp have any negative effects on the system? Meaning, could I potentially do any harm to the system?
I appreciate any feedback.
jay73

Showing 6 responses by lewm

Jay, by definition we assume that an “integrated amplifier” has on one chassis both a line stage and an amplifier. A line stage takes signal from several sources, eg, a phono stage, CD player, tuner, TV, etc, and allows you to select among them for feeding the amplifier section. Sometimes the line stage section adds gain to any signal passing through it. Sometimes not. You might want to check the specs on yours to find out. But listening is the best criterion to go by.
I don’t know who said that the load resistance will affect the gain, except as I noted where the load resistance is nearly equal to, equal to, or less than the internal resistance of the cartridge. When the load resistance equals the internal resistance of the cartridge, there will be a loss of 50% of the signal voltage to ground. In most cases, that is not done. At typical settings of the input resistance, we all agree there is no affect on gain.

hdm, I quite agree with you, even 60db of gain is probably adequate for the Hana. Especially if the line stage section of the integrated amp adds still more gain.
The load resistance effects the phono section so possibly Sim knows their design goes unstable at 47K, but otherwise what they wrote is hogwash. If you like it, it’s good. A sign of instability would be exaggerated ticks and pops.
No effect until you get near to or below the internal resistance of the cartridge.
There is a “wrong” load resistance. For optimal transfer of the signal theory says the load resistance should be ~10X the internal resistance of the MC cartridge. Above 10x (e.g. 47K ohms) is also no problem. When the load resistor falls below a value that yields the 10x ratio, you gradually begin to lose signal voltage to ground and the high frequency response starts to roll off. Many do this on purpose to tame the treble a bit. But when you get near to a ratio of 1:1 (load resistance = internal resistance of cartridge), you lose 50% of signal voltage to ground and treble is severely affected. I think Hana SL has internal R = 30 ohms. So stay at or above 300 ohms for load resistance. In reality you could get away with 200 ohms if it sounds best to your ears.
66db is more than adequate gain for the Hana SL. Are you using a separate line stage? If so, active or passive? If active, it probably adds yet more gain. If passive do you know if the impedance match is ok? What amplifier and speaker? All of these factors affect SPL and dynamics. But you do have plenty of phono gain.