Would changing to a MC solve my problem?

I will ignore your silly riposte. I am not here to do homework. You mentioned the Cary once in one of your early posts, and I did respond to that by saying that most integrated amplifiers (like your Cary) do not add very much if any gain in their built in linestage sections and that lack of an additional boost in gain from your linestage might well be why you are dissatisfied with phono SPLs. As Noromance mentioned, you are getting a nominal 400mV output in signal voltage, with your current cartridge, from your Hegel via its MM stage, which has a robust gain quotient of 46db, when compared to other MM stages. The specs on your Cary indicate that it has a 450mV input sensitivity for full output, which is actually quite sensitive. But CDPs typically make 1V to 2V signal voltage. This accounts for why you may perceive a relative dropoff with analog. So, your alternatives are: buy another high output MM or MI cartridge that makes on the order of 4 or 5mV output (there are many good ones and that is cheaper than buying a new phono stage), or buy a new phono stage, but if you plan to keep the 2.4mV cartridge, you will need an MM stage with at least 50db gain to compete with your CDP (not easy to find), or buy an MC cartridge, or buy a linestage to feed the Cary, or any number of other things. Over and out.

Traudio, both Raul and I are trying to help but you don’t seem to pay attention. What linestage are you using? (That’s my question.) IMO, unless you dislike the Hegel on other grounds, the last thing you need to do to solve the particular problem at hand is to dump the Hegel.

You could as well conclude that your MM cartridge is at fault, because 46db gain in an MM phono stage is typically more than adequate. On the other hand, 2.4 mV output from your MM is low . Most MMs make 4-5mV output. All of this suggests to me that you’re not getting much if any gain from your linestage, and that’s why digital is fine but analog is weak.

What linestage are you using, and how much gain does it add to the signal driving the amplifier? If you’re using an integrated, the linestage section of many integrated amplifiers does not add gain. 400mV from your phono without linestage gain may not be sufficient to drive the amplifier section to full output needed to drive Maggie’s. Whereas the cdp makes 2V, more than enough to drive any typical amp to full output. So Raul is correct in that case.