New Audio Technica ART9XA Up and Running.....

Many thanks, folks  . . . . .

I may even at this point look to upgrade my phono pre as much as I didn't want to so as to be a bit 'future proof' on cartridge selection 'and' permitting me to try out that XA cartridge.
We'll see . . . .

Beans, I'm wondering if you can speak with Clearaudio and find out if there are any MC output resistors that could be changed to bump your output up past 64 dB.  Or maybe there are some users out there who have done this.

Here's the thing: My Classe Six was "fixed" at 57 dB but the unit came with a slew of loose resistors the owner could use to change the output in 2 dB increments.  When I bought the XA, I changed out 2 resistors (one each channel) to bump the gain to 65 dB.  There were other resistor choices that would reach as high as 75 dB!

No idea if this would be possible with your Clearaudio, but asking around and researching are cheap.  BTW, so are resistors.

" Beans, I'm wondering if you can speak with Clearaudio and find out if there are any MC output resistors "

I have a query in with them the past day with 'just' that question.
Well, that and some discrepancies in 'manual's for this one off phono pre.  Most notably is that there is an online manual that states that the XLR outputs of this unit (there are RCA and XLR outputs) has a gain of 66 dB vs the 60 dB of the RCAs.  And compounding this is that my own manual that I dug out today (a very slight single page offering) specifies 58 dB for the outputs vs 60 dB in every other doc I could find on these i.e. so no differentiation between RCA and XLR out.
Game them the S/N of the unit and asked for clarification on the specs and whether an upgrade possible.
Thanks

Hello All - if given an option today which one would you choose to buy ?

AT-ART9XA vs AT-ART9

XA (0.2mV output)  can best be compared to the ART7, not the ART9, on the basis of voltage output. Both the 7 (0.12mV output) and the 9 (0.5mV output) are discontinued, so if you want to replace the 9, you’re best off with the 9XI which has similar voltage output. If you have sufficient overall gain in your system you can consider the XA which was the subject of this thread. Of course the new models are both more expensive than their predecessors by a few hundred bucks.