Looking for a phonostage similar to stock one in RA180


I have a HiFi Rose RA180 integrated with the built-in phonostage. With the Transfiguration Phoenix MC cartridge I never heard a better phonostage in my system. The only drawback is - it is extremely noisy. 

I tried a few from $1000 to $5000 and could not get that sound.

If anyone has the experience comparing the stock phonostage in RA180 with a separate one, an advice would be appreciated.

A step-up transformer would not help because the MM input is noisy too.

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I tried a few from $1000 to $5000 and could not get that sound.

If you have no noise issues with other phono stages, your RA180 may need service/repair.

The measurements do no good if I can hear the noise from the listening position with the input shorted at 30% volume. All other inputs are extremely quiet.

 

I never heard a better phonostage in my system. The only drawback is - it is extremely noisy. 

According to Stereophile review JA's measurement:

I examined the phono input's adjustable equalization set to "RIAA" and the output measured at the speaker outputs without the Audio Precision low-pass filter... Assessed with the inputs shorted to ground but the volume control set to its maximum, the phono input's unweighted, wideband S/N ratios in MM mode were 72.3dB ref. 1kHz at 5mV in both channels. Restricting the measurement bandwidth to 22Hz–22kHz increased this ratio to 74.1dB, while switching in an A-weighting filter further increased the ratio to 80.6dB. The ratios in MC mode, ref. 1kHz at 0.5mV, were all 20dB lower, correlating with the 20dB increased gain in this mode, but the HiFi Rose's phono stage is still relatively quiet.

My suggestion would be to test the RA180's phono stage using a pair of shorted RCA plugs at the phono input to see if the noise problem persists, if not the problem may lie upstream.