Would increasing the gain in the amp give more weight to the sound? Any negatives?

What cartridge are you using? And how long is your phono cable?

The reason I ask is that the relatively high 200 pf input capacitance of your phono stage, in combination with the capacitance of your phono cable (which is proportional to length as well as being dependent on the capacitance per unit length of the particular cable), and the capacitance of the wiring in the turntable, will be too high a total to be optimal with some MM cartridges. In those cases the result would probably be an over-emphasis of parts of the treble region, which could be perceived as an under-emphasis of lower frequencies and consequently as a lack of body.

Also, btw, I’ll mention for possible future reference that the 0.01 uf (10,000 pf) input capacitance of the PH-1 in LOMC mode, which George referred to above and which is confirmed in the PH-1’s manual, frankly speaking strikes me as absurd. While LOMCs are of course less sensitive to load capacitance than MMs, low capacitance is generally preferable with them (see the post by Lyra cartridge designer JCarr dated 8-14-2010 in this thread), and 10,000 pf is **extremely** high. Although presumably the high capacitance was necessitated by some aspect of the design of the phono stage.

Regards,
-- Al

The Goldring 1042 has a recommended load capacitance of 150 to 200 pf. Unless you are using a phono cable having particularly low capacitance, I would guess that the 1.5 meter cable probably has a capacitance in the area of 150 or perhaps even 200 pf, which means that together with the 200 pf input capacitance of the phono stage the cartridge is probably seeing close to twice the recommended load capacitance. So that could very possibly be a significant contributor to the problem.  On the other hand, though, I note that you indicated that recordings made from records sound fine.

Regarding the reason for the 10,000 pf input capacitance in LOMC mode, as I said it was presumably necessitated by something about the particular design. To hazard a very speculative guess, perhaps the circuitry is particularly sensitive to radio frequency energy, and perhaps a 10,000 pf capacitor was therefore placed at the input to provide a very heavy load at RF frequencies (the impedance of a capacitor decreases as frequency increases, and hence the loading it presents becomes heavier as frequency increases), that would filter out any such energy that might be generated by the cartridge (LOMCs have bandwidths extending up into the RF region) or that may be picked up from some other source.

Regards,
-- Al

According to John Atkinson's measurements in Stereophile the PH-1 has an output impedance of "220 ohms at all frequencies."  The review also indicates that the circuit "appears to be based on Burr-Brown OPA2134 op-amp chips."  A quick look at the OPA2134 datasheet indicates that it can drive much lower impedances than 10K, albeit with a slight sacrifice in how much output voltage it can swing.  So the 10K minimum load recommendation appears to be conservative, and the Redgum's 10K input impedance is unlikely to be an issue.

... how would you explain the fact that when running the phono thru the deck I don't have such a problem, I only got slight drop in resolution and soundstage.

It's hard to say, in part because the capacitance of the phono cable is unknown.  And it's quite possible that the excess load capacitance being applied to the cartridge is not a significant contributor to the issue.  On the other hand, though, perhaps the tape deck is a bit rolled off in the treble region, which might compensate for the frequency response peak that the excess capacitance is likely to be causing somewhere in the treble region.

What seems safe to say, though, is that the excess capacitance is causing the cartridge to perform at less than its full potential.  The degree to which that may be true, however, is anyone's guess.

Regards,
-- Al