Modifications to improve gain of ASL mini phono.

I think there may be trade off for gain improvement, i.e. noise, microphonic. My preamp doesn't have much noise at 12 O'clock. I wonder if anyone compare the old and new version of the ASL mini phono?

If the phono stage is noisy, the ground wire may be not firmly connected to the tube housing. I opened the 2 tubes casing and solder the ground wire to its screw attaching it to the circuit board and the housing. This ground wire is not firmly attached to the screw because there is no spacer underneath the circuit board to keep pressure between the wire and the screw. Does anyone know the function of the adjustable pots in the power supply unit?

12 O'clock is 50% of the max. vol. with Shure V15 type 5 (3.5 mV). I think the ASL phono stage gain is about 40 dB which is about the same as my Sonic Frontiers SFP-1. Both of these phono stages are dead quite. When I place my ear about 5 in. from the speaker I can barely hear the statics. I got this after resolving the grounding wire attachments. I found that SS phono stages give me lots of gain but without the clarity and sweet tube sounds. I have not try expensive SS phono stage yet. Thanks