Problem with phono stage


Hello Fellow Audiogoners,

I need help with my Phono stage. It is Lehman Audio Black Cube from Germany.  It was recommended from Simao, a very respected Audiogon member who helped me a lot when I was building my stereo. It costs 450$ brand new which I bought used from this site. Michael Fremer considers it one of the best steals in phono stages. I get a little bit better detail and bass extension BUT it also much noisier. I can hear the pops and any other noises  on the records much more then with the phono stage of my Arcam FMJ 28 which turned out to be a surprisingly good one considering it is an integrated one.
I also switched the cables but the noise is still there.
Is this a common problem with added phono stages as opposed to integrated ones or something is wrong with my phono and needs to be checked.

All help will be greatly appreciated.
Emil


emilm

Showing 2 responses by geof3

The Black Cube is a single input with variations on the dip switches that are gain oriented. There really is only one setting for an MM cart overall. The capacitance can be tweaked, but internally. It is probable, if that noisy, the capacitance stock installed in the Cube doesn’t play very well with your cart. The nice thing about stepping up to the Decade is the ability to dial in the capacitance of an MM cart along with several gain options. It can make all the difference. You can also shoot Lehmann a note. Norbert is usually very responsive and very helpful.
Ejb14 is correct. There are several other settings that the Black Cube has, but must be done from internally on the board. To include, as mentioned, a gain jumper. However, it is not really a “jumper” that is easy to swap, at least not on mine (I have the SE) it requires some surgery.