Passive Preamp works with Dynavector p75?

You have to add the gain from the phono stage plus the gain from the line stage, (preamp) to see if you have enough total output for the cartridge. I would doubt that the setup you list above will work very well. What cartridge do you have? We will need to calculate the cart and the phono stage to see. The P75 has a gain of up to 63db max.

Thanks for your quick assessment. I am using Benz MC Gold cartridge which given its low output, probably doesn't help.

The MC Gold has an output of .4mv. This combined with the P75 gives a total output of just 575mv. You really need to be at 1 volt minimum and a little higher would be even better. You can try it, but I don't think it will sound very good and there will probably be more noise than signal.

Try running the P75 directly into the mc122 with no preamp at all. This will tell you what the highest volume level that you will get with a passive pre wide open will be. Adequate volume is only one of the considerations when going the passive pre route, but this would be a good start. Be careful that you don't overload the speakers, but with the Maggies' lowish sensitivity, I doubt you would have any problems. You will probably be surprised by the increase in clarity and refinement, but very possibly also disappointed with the lean and undynamic sound. Worth the experiment.

It worked with my Passion Ultimate passive but my Meridian 605s only need .5 volt for full output.

I just noticed that your McIntosh MC 122 has level controls in the rear that can be set at .8v sensitivity. You could try that and see if it's enough gain for the passive preamp.

What is going to be important here is the input sensitivity and voltage gain of the MAC. My friend has the P75 going into a Sowter based TVC into a CJ MV60 SE. He is using a Dynavector cart, the 17D2 I think. This works great. However his speakers are GMA Europas which are more efficient than your MMGs too. I still say my first sentence in this post is going to be key for your success.

Shakey

It will probably work, but how well is the question. Input sensitivity of .8V is a good start, but the gain level has to be taken into consideration too. Also, input impedance on the amp is 10k ohms, not usually ideal for a passive preamp regardless of the source IMO (unless it is a buffered passive like the Pass B1).

>You will probably be surprised by the increase in clarity and refinement, but very possibly also disappointed with the lean and undynamic sound<

If he goes with a transformer or autoformer type passive he won't be disappointed. They don't have the issues with dynamics or leanness that you speak of.

Shakey

Thanks everyone. So may be I should connect the p75 directly to the Mac and see what happen. Now my question is: Are you sure it won't damage my speakers because the output volume is too high?

The MC Gold has an output of .4mv. This combined with the P75 gives a total output of just 575mv.

That is not the maximum output, it is the output with a standard test track. The maximum is higher so it could well be that it will drive an amp with .8V sensitivity to clipping especially on a hot record.

You also need to be concerned about the low input impedance of the amp. If you get a typical passive with an impedance of 10K or so the phono stage will see that and the 10K of the amp in parallel for an effective impedance of around 5K at higher volumes. I couldn't find a spec for the output impedance of the phono but it it is on the high side, say >500 ohms your sound will suffer.

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