Increasing gain for your vinyl front end when pre-amp doesn't quite have enough juice


Hi Folks, just wanted to get your thoughts on what route you would go if your pre-amp (I’m talking about a normal pre-amp, not phono preamp) doesn’t quite have enough gain for very high listening levels for my turntable set-up. Now, on my phono-pre amp, there is a setting for maximum gain (schiit Mani) up to 59db, but the S/N ratio takes a hit and goes down to 70db, however, it does pump out the needed volume. What about the idea of putting in a good (inexpensive headphones amp/preamp - one of those $99 guys - like schiit Magni, JDS Labs Atom or Monolith Liquid Spark) between the phono preamp and the regular preamp? Does this have the potential of producing the needed gain while at the same time not degrading the signal too much (perhaps not as much as full gain on the Mani?) Just wanted to see what you all think. To me it seems like less items in the signal chain the better, but if it has a higher S/N ratio could be a better option? (with the added benefit of listening to vinyl through headphones, which I’ve never done before.)
bstatmeister

Showing 2 responses by millercarbon

By the way, what is so terrible about a 70db S/N ratio? For vinyl, that shouldn't be too obtrusive.

This^
Up the gain. For when you really need the volume.

The other idea, putting a very low voltage and RIAA equalized cartridge signal into a device designed for line voltage, not to mention adding another interconnect to screw things up, and I'm not even gonna start on grounding issues this mess might cause. You think a little white noise is a problem? You will just have try the headphone amp to appreciate the awfulness of that one. All those scores of step up transformers? The complete lack of headphone amps marketed as step up transformers? Think about it.