Benz Micro Ace (m) with ortofon Mca-76

[hawkan2580]

I'm no techie what so ever and don't understand the data I'm looking at:

Benz Micro ace Type
moving coil Output Voltage 0.8mV
Load Impedance 200-47k ohms
Output Impedance 24 ohms

The Ortofon Mca 76 has 34db gain, input impedance at 75ohm and output at < 140ohm

The MM input is 2.5mV and ohm is switchable between 30/50/100kohm

Will this work and what is the implications if any of mismatch ?

Are there any other "vintage" (read cheap) mc head amps/step ups that is more suitable out of the box?

 

[vinyl1]

Not a good match. You have only 34db of gain, that is simply not enough for a cartridge that puts out .8 mV.

Typically, a Benz sounds best with a load of 1K ohms, you only have a choice of 30/50/100K.

You would need a suitable phono preamp to use this cartridge.

 

[hawkan2580]

I'm not sure I follow you..

I do have a phono pre-amp in the amp.. the mca-76 is to bring up the mc to MM input range... or did I misunderstand you?

So 0.8 from cartridge into mca with 34db gain into phono mm in on the preamp.. I'm more thinking I'd overdrive the phono in if anything.. although it claims max input is 300mv on the preamps mm phono stage.... the load is where I get lost LOL

 

[Blue Shadow]

Answered on VE, but the MCA might overdrive the phono input with that cartridge. But it will for sure take away almost all the volume control movement you have.

The MCA is designed to mate with the MC-20 which has an output of 0.07mV, an order of magnitude lower than the Benz. The MC-20 at 0.07mV will have a 5 mV output with the MCA, the Benz will have a 40mV output.

I'm currently using the MCA/MC-20 combo and have other cartridges with 0.4 and 0.6mV output that I used with a different phono head amp (moving coil phono preamplifier designed to be plugged into a phono stage).

 

[vinyl1]

Ah, I get you, the Ortofon is an output transformer without phono equalization, just giving you a voltage boost. I suppose I should have checked.

BlueShadow is right, then. While you could load the cartridge correctly, you would probably have close to 70dB of total gain, which would be way too much.

 

[Blue Shadow]

Ah, I get you, the Ortofon is an output transformer without phono equalization, just giving you a voltage boost. I suppose I should have checked.

BlueShadow is right, then. While you could load the cartridge correctly, you would probably have close to 70dB of total gain, which would be way too much.

The MCA-76 is an active amplifier, the STM-72 is the ortofon transformer of the era. There are many more now but those two were designed to be used with the very low output cartridges. The STM is an inline unit, phono plugs in, it plugs onto phono input. The MCA has an AC line input cord, too. You are correct that these units do not have RIAA eq in them.

This complication is one reason MC took a long time to catch on anywhere but the high end of phono systems. Today many units have the flexibility to use many different output levels, adjustable loading and RIAA eq all in one box.