Millercarbon, you must have been listening to a defective unit. I owned a PH3 SE and the last term I would use to describe it's sound would be wooden. Like other ARC designs it's "tube" character is very light. Some might even think it was a SS unit. I have not listened to the Herron so I can not compare but the PH3 SE is a very excellent phono amp.
Hal 123, I think the gain is 58 dB. You have to adjust the load for MC cartridges. You have to take the biottom cover off and you will see the large solder lugs at the very rear of the circuit board. You solder the righ resisters to these lugs. One for each channel. The PH3 SE will handle any MM cartridge under 4 mV and MC cartridges down to 0.04 mV
If you use RAM Labs Ultra Low noise 6922s you can take it down to 0.025 mV but you may run out of volume depending on your other equipment. Low output Grado cartdridges do not work well with this Phono amp. I would also avoid low output Soundsmith cartridges. The Clearaudio MM cartridges work wonderfully well and with Ultra Low Noise tubes Clearaudio MC cartridges also work very well but you have to adjust the loading by soldering the right resistors in.
Hal 123, I think the gain is 58 dB. You have to adjust the load for MC cartridges. You have to take the biottom cover off and you will see the large solder lugs at the very rear of the circuit board. You solder the righ resisters to these lugs. One for each channel. The PH3 SE will handle any MM cartridge under 4 mV and MC cartridges down to 0.04 mV
If you use RAM Labs Ultra Low noise 6922s you can take it down to 0.025 mV but you may run out of volume depending on your other equipment. Low output Grado cartdridges do not work well with this Phono amp. I would also avoid low output Soundsmith cartridges. The Clearaudio MM cartridges work wonderfully well and with Ultra Low Noise tubes Clearaudio MC cartridges also work very well but you have to adjust the loading by soldering the right resistors in.