phono stage advice

[RothwellAudio]

I wouldn't rule out phonostages with a set gain and load. For MM cartridges the spread of output voltages isn't particularly wide and 40dB gain will do the job in over 80% of cases.
MC cartridges tend to have more of a spread but 60dB gain and 100 ohm load will still be fine for the majority of them. The importance of the load impedance is often overstated in my opinion.

What would be useful is the ability to change the capacitive load for MM cartridges, but that's the one things that's conspicuous by its absense more often than not.

Anyway, I wouldn't say that fixed gain makes a phonostage a non-starter.

[Arkless Electronics]

Something else to consider. I think that it's important to be able to easily alter the gain and loading on a phonostage, as, inevitably, you'll end up with different cartridges and amplifiers/speakers in the future. Phonostages that have a single 'set' gain and loading shouldn't be considered imo.

I completely disagree and for the same reasons as Andrew gave.

MM's have a standard 47K resistive loading requirement, only capacitance may need changing and even then 100-200pF will suit 90% of carts. With MC carts the importance of correct resistive loading is exaggerated and they don't require any capacitive loading.
Gain: Most MM's are around 5mV output so one gain setting will suffice for 90% of the MM's ever made. MC's have a wider range of output's but in this case noise is likely to be the biggest issue with really low output MC's. The vast majority of MC's will be in the range 0.3mV - 0.6mV and this agsin is easily handles by one gain setting.

For what it's worth the Arkless 640P has infinitely adjustable loading for MM and MC by use of loading plugs and gain can be changed within certain limits by pre arranging with me to build for a certain gain. I would discourage this though for the reasons given above. It's quiet enough and has enough gain as is for me to use one with my Technics EPC-300MC cart with only 0.1mV output...

[smithie]

thanks once again for all the tips/advice and pointers.
i think for now im just going to go with something to tie me over while i research and ponder on the direction im gonna take and the limit im gonna aim to price wise etc regarding a phonostage.
my choice of phono stage to tie me over was a Musical Fidelity V90-LPS,but this seems to be out of stock at any sensible price?? have they stopped making this,noticed its still being advertised on the mf web site....
of course if anyone has one going cheap,preferably in black,but ill take silver at a pinch then let me know,in the mean time ill keep looking and stick a wanted ad up

regards
smithie