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Sonic Frontiers Phono One: Gain too high?

Hello,

I'm trying to help a fellow 'phile troubleshoot a problem with his Phono One. He claims that he cannot use anything except very low output cartridges with his Sonic Frontiers phono stage because he has the "high gain" version. Evidently there were three different versions of the SF Phono One: a low gain, normal, and high gain? I looked through the manual and on page eight it describes how to set the dip switches for various cartridges, even has two user defined positions (using add-on resistors and capacitors). No idea why he couldn't fiddle with these settings to dial in the step up.

So... can a "high gain" Phono One be set up to accomodate high output moving coil or moving magnet pickups???? Thanks much, Jeff
jeffloistarca

Showing 1 response by hagtech

hagtech
173 posts
 
I don't believe the issue is gain, but rather overload. The 1.5mV cart would probably overdrive the inputs (or second stage) when set to high gain. If opamp-based circuit, will likely be hard clipping, which is pretty easy to hear. Once signal is past EQ then you can add more gain without saturation.

The Hagerman Bugle can handle the 2.5mV at 50dB, but not at 60dB. It's best to run minimum gain for maximum headroom. Also true with linestages; attenuators sound best when not used.

jh
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