Phonostage Advice

If there's breakup that sounds almost like static distortion then it may be mistracking. But if that's the case then you should hear it on other similarly loud passages regardless of the record label. Hasten to add, I don't think that's what this is, just trying to make the point that careful listening can point you in the general direction- or if not in the right direction then at least away from the wrong direction.

You can in a similar way eliminate your electronics. Besides dynamic range records are not all recorded (pressed) at the same level. Put on one of your "loudest" sounding records, play the loudest part on it, but play it at less than full volume, and if you don't hear the "clipping" then you just ruled out the phono stage. And cartridge, phono leads, etc. Then play it at higher volume. Now if it happens its got to be the amp. Nothing else is left.

But I find this unlikely. Most of us have some kind of sense that kicks in telling us the system is too loud its getting stressed. Could be the speaker voice coils getting hot and changing resistance therefore sound, could be clipping, could be whatever. Funny thing though, more often than not the last thing we suspect is the room. Like my friend.

Remember a room is an enclosed volume. It has a resonance. Well, multiple resonances. It also has walls that are large flat surfaces that each one of which has its own fundamental resonance. Then there's the corners where the walls and ceiling meet. Its useful to think of these as a horn. Any sound originating in the corner will be amplified and reinforced by the side walls as it travels out from the corner. Therefore a small triangular acoustic panel located in the corner will be far more effective than the same size panel placed just about anywhere else.

Next most effective is along the corner where the walls meet the ceiling. Then the corners where the front, back and side walls come together.

If your electronics pass the first tests these are the logical next steps to take.

Interesting I have a M&K Realtime LP and when I play it, it appears to be clipping. I thought the singer was over driving the Mic. Could it be my Pre??

I had a friend over one time swore Holly Cole was overdriving the mic. Or tape. Whatever. Point is he wouldn't believe me when I told him no way. In order for that to be the case the recording engineer, and mastering engineer, and producer, would all have to be incompetent, and on top of that using crap equipment. Not to mention the performer, who most certainly heard it too. And they all let it pass? Not likely. Being honest I told him its almost certainly some combination of room resonance and equipment I haven't got dialed in just yet. 

Fast forward several months, bunch of room tuning, few different components, and tweaks, play the same track and its gone. Just totally gone.

I have no idea what you're hearing, but it ain't the mic.

As good as the Modwright stuff tends to be still its just very hard to do as well as in a stand alone unit. Basically, it breaks down into the advantage of the stand alone unit in having its own dedicated power supply combined with the advantage of being able to physically space these far enough apart to get really good shielding outweighs the inherent disadvantage of having to pay for the case, always one of the more expensive single items on a component budget list.

I'd be surprised if you don't find all the units listed above to be a lot better, and immediately, like it will jump out at you.

That being said however, and this is a big however, there's more variance in the sound of phono stages than most other audio components. This probably is down to the massive RIAA equalization required, combined with the massive amplification, combined with the microscopically millivolt level input they have to work with. Its just very hard to get it right. 

I must have brought a dozen phono stages in for home audition when shopping for mine, everything from Lehman Black Cube at the cheap end to a Linn and Audio Research at the high end with stuff like EAR in the middle and a whole lot more. A lot of these were good enough I could see people being happy with them but the range of sounds was extreme. 

So yes you will (not can, will) get significant improvement, but just need to be careful in order for it to be the kind of significant improvement that you really want.