Is a Phono Preamp better than regular Preamp??

[George H]

x'actly what I as looking for, making my foray into moving coils with a ortofon mc20 rebuild but have an old Fisher integrated with a mm input, need the extra gain with the early mc20's. Need a 60-70 dB boost. Sounds like a off shore tube pre- for me. I have a boatload of 12a** tubes to roll but I didn't want to have to take a pill after a disappointing purchase.

 

[rothwellaudio]

x'actly what I as looking for, making my foray into moving coils with a ortofon mc20 rebuild but have an old Fisher integrated with a mm input, need the extra gain with the early mc20's. Need a 60-70 dB boost. Sounds like a off shore tube pre- for me. I have a boatload of 12a** tubes to roll but I didn't want to have to take a pill after a disappointing purchase.

Getting sufficient gain for a LOMC cartridge using tubes isn't difficult, but getting a good signal-to-noise ratio is. In fact, it's almost impossible. The EAR uses onboard step-up transformers for its mc input, as do most other tube mc phonostages (unless they use solid-state at the mc input).

 

[Buanadha]

Well so far I've got my eye on these preamps....
NAD 1300
Carver C1
Denon PRA 1100

Also found a phono preamp that gets good reviews (and some not as good)
Lounge LCR Markiii

BUT with the Lounge LCR I'd be spending my preamp money on it which means at least for a period I'd have to hook it directly to a amp (if possible). I'd have level control at the amp but that's it and wouldn't be able to listen to anything else.

Is it okay to hook a phono preamp up directly to a amp? What about my phone using a cable that goes from my headphone jack to rca? I usually use it in the aux inputs. Are amp inputs different from standard inputs like aux?

just my 2 cents - I don't have the 1300, but have the NAD 3400 that has the 1300 as it's pre-amp section and have been very happy with the phono on it as I've been with the other phono stages in their gear from that time period and a bit later (1600 and 1700). My vinyl setup is pretty mid-fi, though.

Something like the 3400 might be a good option for adding power and keeping the phono you want as you'd get the 1300 pre-amp to go with 100watt amp. Older gear, though, so all the usual caveats apply. Good luck!

 

[Mr Boochie]

just my 2 cents - I don't have the 1300, but have the NAD 3400 that has the 1300 as it's pre-amp section and have been very happy with the phono on it as I've been with the other phono stages in their gear from that time period and a bit later (1600 and 1700). My vinyl setup is pretty mid-fi, though.

I used the NAD 1600 phono stage for years. It's pretty darn good. For stand-alone preamp, I needed to go to quite a bit (over $500) to beat the sound. Really, I bought my stand alone more for the variable adjustments, better MC/MM flexibility, as well as the sound quality.

It's nice to have a built-in pre-amp phono stage. Less wires, grounding issues, and power supplies to worry about. Vintage Luxman pre-amps have some nice phono stages.