MM Phono Stages With Greater Than 40 dB of Gain?

Mulveling, it’s a simple matter to change the load resistance of an MM phono stage. I use 100K ohms in all of mine. Anything higher in value than 100K must be for the case where you want to use a SUT with a high turns ratio (>1:10) and the cartridge has a high-ish internal impedance (>>10 ohms). I’ve not encountered that situation.

80db gain would give you 500mV or 0.5V from the MC2000, marginally enough to drive most amplifiers. So you can include the gain added by any linestage to get to 80db+ total voltage gain.  My 3160 Phonolinepreamp almost does it alone, because of the gain added by its linestage, but not quite enough oomph. It's very quiet and clean even at full output, however.  What I settled on is either an outboard solid state current driven module custom made for me by Dave Slagle (Dave estimates its gain at 32db, I think), into my Silvaweld tube phono stage driving the linestage of the 3160.  Or the BMC MCCI driving the 3160 linestage.

In my direct experience, you want at least 80db of total voltage gain (phono + linestage) to get the most out of an MC2000.  More is even better.

In addition, there are a slew of current drive phono stages that easily handle the MC2000 with no SUT. (Of course, you can’t use a SUT with current drive.) For only one example my BMC MCCI set at +11db gain. In further addition there is the Sutherland outboard current drive pure gain stage that in essence subs for a SUT into an MM stage. Because the MC2000 makes a fair amount of current owing to its very low internal resistance.

If you have the bucks, do not ignore Raul’s mention of the new 3180. I own the 3160, and it is superb (and all solid state, in a tube guy’s system).

As to the Manley phono stages, the gain stage is a hybrid cascode (transistor on the bottom/tube on top), not purely tube devices, if you want solid state.

Mulveling’s suggestion of using a 1:10 SUT into an MC stage, in order to derive enough gain for the MC2000, is interesting. I don’t know of anyone who has ever tried that. The MC2000 has an internal R of 2 ohms and so could theoretically drive a 20 ohm load in voltage mode. To achieve that minimum acceptable load on the cartridge, you would have to use an MC stage with at least a 2000 ohm input resistor. (square of the turns ratio of a 1:10 SUT is 100. 2000 ohms/100 = 20 ohms.)

Manley Steelhead offers minimum 50db of gain on its single MM inputs, and that can be cranked up as high as 65db, not that you would need it. I too love the MC2000, and I use mine with a custom built outboard pre-preamp into the Manley MM inputs with gain to spare. (The Manley linestage adds no gain, so being able to access 50db via the MM phono inputs is critically important.) I assume the less expensive Chinook would also provide 50db of MM phono gain, but you should check. This is with my Beveridge system. On my Sound Lab system, I use the same outboard pre-preamp into a modified Silvaweld MM stage and thence into the linestage of Raul’s 3160 Phonolinepreamp, which adds at least 20db of gain. I do not own any SUT.