Phono preamp match for Sota Sapphire table and Hana MC SL cartridge

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by William Shenefelt, Feb 14, 2018.

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  1. William Shenefelt

    William Shenefelt New Member Thread Starter

    I have a new SOTA Sapphire turntable. It has a unipivot silicon damped tonearm. My cartridge is a Hana SL low output moving coil with Shibata stylus (0.5 mv output). My audio system preamp is an Accuphase C-200. I have decent but not overboard interconnects. ($120 +, not several thousand dollar stuff).
    The Accuphase has a 40 dB gain stage for phono and selectable output impedance. I was using 1000 ohms and the Hana recommends greater than 400 ohms. It can't get quite enough gain to send the Accuphase "tape out" signal to an auxiliary input on my Anthem MRX 1120 AVR which drives my stereo speakers with RCA outputs through a Marchand active crossover to an old Audire amp and a Crown XLs 1502 . The speakers are about 94dB/watt efficient so have more than enough power available from those amps. They are "old school" JBL studio monitors of the 1980s. Ported reflex 4 way using horn and slot radiator upper range and 15 inch bass with 10 inch mid bass drivers. My enclosures are home built by me but use specifications and drivers matching the JBL 4343A monitors.
    If I make use of some the additional 20 dB of gain available in the volume out jacks of the Accuphase I can feed an auxiliary input of the Anthem and get decent sound levels from the Anthem if turned up near max with maybe 3/4 volume dial on the Accuphase. I am not comfortable using a volume of minus 5 db on the Anthem though. Also I really would like to have a new phono gain stage of better quality than what I have in my Accuphase if not too expensive. The Anthem volume is typically set around -38 db for tv and maybe as high as -15 dB for movies. I tried a Pro-Ject DS+ phono preamp feeding the Accuphase auxiliary input but it is noisier than the Accuphase when I use the volume out jacks.

    I am looking for a decent (under maybe $1500 tops), low noise phono preamp to feed the cartridge output to the Accuphase auxiliary inputs. I have more than enough power to feed my speakers, I just need a lower noise input for them. Some suggested units have been a Vincent PHO 701 and a Musical Fidelity MX-Vynl MM/MC. I like the idea that the Vincent also provides D/A converter and a USB output but do not know which may provide lower noise and nicer sound.

    Any suggestions?
     
  2. deadcoldfish

    deadcoldfish Senior Member

    Location:
    Santa Rosa, CA
  3. McGuy

    McGuy All Mc, all the time...

    Location:
    Chicago
    FWIW, I just picked up a McIntosh MP100 phono preamp for $1300 from Audio Classics - amazing component! And I'm about to pull the trigger on a Hana SL to replace my Ortofon 2M blue...
     
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