Plinius M16 Phono vs. Plinius M14 Separate Phono

Trevor,
If you're new to vinyl, the built in phono card can be a good start. It will allow you to spend your finances on turntable/arm/cartridge first and foremost. I started with a Clase CP-60 w/ built in phono stage, it served me nicely for a couple years. As you get further in, you may wish to go with seperates, as I eventually did. I see you already have seperate amp/preamp. Seperating the phono stage from the preamp should bring about equal sonic value as going with seperate preamp/amp, IMHO.

Cheers,
John

Trevor,
My mistake, I didn't read your system componants closely enough. I was thrown by the 'new to vinyl' first line. Forgive me. I guess your problem is you're not satisfied with the gain from your current setup. There are two ways to address this issue, either buy a phono stage that has more gain, or buy a cratridge with a higher output level.
I've checked the Plinius website, and they make no mention of how much gain the M-16's internal phono card or the M-14 has. So you'd have to e-mail Plinius and ask them this question. As a general rule though, you'll need at least 55 db of gain from a phono stage (internal or external) to drive a medium low output MC cartridge (0.5-1mV). From what information I've read on the ZYX cartridges, they seem to be very low output MC's (~0.25mV output). For cartridge with this low of an output you will probably need at least 65 db of gain from a phono preamp. So you could e-mail Plinius and find out how much gain you currently have in your M-16, and how much gain their M-14 supplies.

Bottom line, if you're not getting the sound levels you want you will need to get a higher output cartridge to mate with your current phono stage OR get a phono stage with more gain to support the ZYX UNIverse.

Think of it like the speaker efficiency/amplifier power rating combination. The less sensitive the speakers, the more amplifier power that is required to drive them.

Hopefully this is of a little more help.

Cheers,
John

Trevor, yes 60 db should be plenty of gain for a 0.48mV output.

Cheers,
John