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phono pre-amp being replaced

Hi guys long time no talk to.

So I'm reaching out to the community to get some feedback. I recently purchased a Lyra Kleos phono cartridge. Love the cartridge by the way. One of the best sounding carts in its price range and more that I have heard. With that said I currently have an ARC PH-7 phono stage. Love that piece also. Its very natural sounding and just produces a lovely sound. However in regards to cartridge loading its just not the best match for the Kleos. I understood that when I bought the cartridge, but I really wanted the Kleos so I pulled the trigger. Don't get me wrong the sound is amazing with the two however the PH-7 has a fixed gain of 57.5 DB. with the Kleos being a .5mv output I have lost about 8-10 DB of gain in reference to my medium output Dynavector that the Kleos replaced. I think the optimal gain for .5mv is somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-61DB. So that is a little background. Here is my question. I'm looking for recommendations for a phono stage to replace the PH-7. I don't want to shell out the money for the ARC Reference which is around $10k plus. I think I can get just as good a sound for somewhat less. So as much as I LOVE my PH-7 I am ready to part with it at this point to better match the Kleos.  So I thought I would ask. So any suggestions would be helpful. I'm looking for something maybe with variable gain or at least maybe a high and a low setting for future cartridge upgrades. I would like it to be vacuum tube, and of course have a very natural sound. So that should narrow the field. I have  been so happy with what I have that I have not even entertained auditioning anything else until now so Im a little behind the 8 ball on the available models out there other than ARC of course. May have a little brand loyalty there, but I'm willing to give another brand a try to keep things in my price range of 3-$6k.


Thanks in advance


-Keith

barnettk

Showing 2 responses by three_easy_payments

three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
I agree with @roberjerman  If you like the PH-7 then it's well worth it to buy something like a Zesto Audio Allasso SUT (which is what I have paired with my Herron VTPH-2A).   The gain on your ARC PH-7 is 57.5dB for both moving-magnet and moving-coil cartridges. So you will have plenty of flexibility with something like the Zesto which has 10 different load settings that can be applied to 4 gain levels (12, 16, 18, and 22dB).  40 settings in total.  So now you can not just tailor your rig to one beloved 0.5mv cart....you can practically run any cart with your PH-7, including MCs in the 0.2 range.  I'm running an 0.28mv Dyna XX2 MKII and it sounds spectacular through the Zesto/Herron combo.
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
@wlutke

3 EZ payments,
I have the Dyna too but not tried it with the Herron. How is the (all tube) MM input with ($3K) SUT vs. the hybrid MC input? The Zesto looks interesting. Thanks.

I greatly prefer the flexibility and performance I get from the Zesto through the MM input. The gain increase really helps the dynamics while still sounding realistic and neutral with no coloration. The loading choices make a huge difference as well. Using the 22dB gain setting on the Zesto lets me select the following ohm loadings: 20, 30, 40, 60, 80, 100, 130, 180, 240, or 300 (all selectable on the fly while music playing). I think Dyna recommends 30 (or >30) and I find 40 sounds best to me on most recordings. Keith included a handful of loading pins and I think 30 was one along with maybe 100, 300, 1000, and 47K. I would never have known that 40 sounds best with this cart just using that array. I’m really happy with it plus I get the great advantage of knowing how easy it is to handle pretty much any cart I desire in the future. Oh yeah, the Zesto also has a mono switch to handle mono cartridge hum. It does this by taking the left mono input and sending it to both outputs.
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