MM Phono Stages With Greater Than 40 dB of Gain?

So far it seems to get that level of gain is going to be had with tube based phono stages. 

Are there any solid state alternatives?

@mulveling The MC2000 . .05 mV, so a bit lower. I have the T2000 which is listed as having 35 dB of gain. I think its somewhere around 1:50 ratio. 

When I did find a T2000 I had hoped that I had my gain issue put to bed. It's not qute that easy. 

Yeah - I like to listen loud and 35dB from a SUT might not be enough for my liking with 0.05mV. That's still only 2.5mV hitting the MM stage, which is on the low side. 

Again, I think a 10x SUT is underrated here - that makes the 0.05mV into 0.5mV, which is in the range of a "normal" MC. Then you add a normal MC stage, being sure that it's "active" MC gain and not another SUT - loads of solid state MC stages would do well here. 

I still have an MC20 in a drawer, which also has that insanely low 0.07mV output. I remember a long time ago, I enjoyed this cartridge when I had a combination of extremely high gain preamp > 20dB) and power amp gain (> 30dB) to make up for it downstream. Very different sound from modern Ortofon. I sometimes consider how I would handle that cartridge today.

First, you can upgrade your MM gain above 40dB, as you mention. The ARC Reference series phono stages (Ref 3) are pricey but get you a whopping 52 dB in low gain / MM mode on the balanced outputs (6dB less in SE). Many other tube phono stages offer 42 - 46dB, like various VACs (some built-in to preamps), Rogue Ares, Hagerman Cornet / Trumpet. The Herron VTPH-2 is a good one, especially if made with the 4x 12AX7, 1x AT7 configuration which gets up into 48dB MM (drops to 43dB with the 3x 12AT7, 2x AX7 configuration - note a unit’s RIAA curve will be factory tuned to one config or the other; you shouldn’t just swap tubes). I believe EAR 834P also has a very high MM gain.

Then I’ve also been considering - what about using a low ratio SUT in combination with a moderate gain MC stage? It sounds "wrong" but on paper there’s no reason it can’t work great. For example:
EAR MC-4’s 40 ohm tap (10x = 20dB gain) plus a Benz Lukasheck PP-1 62dB (all solid state gain) results in a whopping 82dB gain, should be very low noise, and 220 ohm net load. You can use RCA splitters and loading plus if you want to lower the load further. OR how about a nice low noise hybrid MC stage like Sonic Frontiers Phono 1 (came in 54dB and 64dB variants) or Manley Chinook (60 or 66dB) should also work well like this. Their lead stage is JFET so the loading is flexible. You definitely CAN’T stack two SUTs in series (because of loading and Ohm’s law) and you shouldn’t stack two MC gain stages (because of noise) but a SUT into a JFET MC stage is fine (kind of seems like an audiophile “life hack” here), as long as you set the input loading above 1K!

So - lots of options!

Folks are now recommending general-purpose MM/MC phono stages. OP’s specific cartridge is NOT a normal MC. It’s a 0.05mV mega-ultra-extreme LOW output and needs something more specific. He already has a matching 50x SUT (35dB gain), which ideally would be paired to a ~ 45dB - 50dB voltage gain stage at 47K (or higher) load to hit the electrical "sweet spot". Any lower than 47K load will not work well. 40dB gain is probably not enough (without a lot of downstream line gain available).

That configuration should work well; lots of nice options for that. I’ve been proposing an alternative, in the form of a 10x SUT plus an active voltage gain stage in the range of 60 - 64dB, with load of 2K or higher (as @lewm pointed out). It is very unusual to feed a SUT into a full MC stage, but I think that might work nicely here due to the very unusual circumstances. Loading is very crucial here!

No active MC stage on earth of going to amplify that 0.05mV on its own, without the help of a SUT and without rendering a MASSIVE noise floor!

@bdp24 the Herron VTPH-2A specs 43dB or 48dB gain MM mode and 64dB or 69dB MC mode (depending on tube configuration). Were earlier iterations lower in gain? The 48dB MM model would be absolutely ideal for OP with his 50x SUT and a 2K (or higher) loading plug (or no loading plug!). However, I was under the impression that you cannot simply swap tubes (pair of 12AX7 vs 12AX7) to go from one configuration to the other - I thought the RIAA EQ was tuned at the factory for one or the other, so it would have to go back to Keith (or take instruction from him) to properly change config - because the 2 tubes in question are part of the RIAA eq circuit? My VTPH-2A is the lower gain config, 3x 12AT7 and 2x 12AX7. This config was Keith’s typical recommendation. It would be great if I could just swap tubes to change config (if 12AX7's were food I'd be set for life). And I’ve definitely come to appreciate the VTPH-2A’s virtues more with time!

@rauliruegas The Essential 3160 looks lovely! I’ll have to look more into it.

I hate that most MM stages don’t offer loading options beyond 47Kohms. Opening this up to 100K, 500K, or 1MEG would afford SO much flexibility.