How to increase sound output of low gain carts

[navinsinha]

I was using Shure M55E cart on my AR XA turntable. A few days back, I changed the cart and put my ADC ZLM. I found that I have to increase the volume to 12 o'clock position which was never more than 9 o'clock with Shure M55E. Is there a way to increase the volume output of the low gain carts? As I understand ADC ZLM cart's gain is 3.5mv as against above 6mv for the Shure.

 

[jls001]

Most likely there will be no way to increase output of either the cart or phono stage as both are fixed (unless of course you have a phono stage that allows multiple gain settings). Your volume knob is your best friend, and there's no harm using it unless it unduly increases the background noise too.

 

[reubensm]

+1, maybe you can try a buffer stage but there is a possibility of background noise increase.

 

[omishra]

Simply add one opamp gain stage after phono preamplifier, like SSP here. Contact sachu888, he may help you.
But keep in mind, phono preamplifier generally gives output of ~350mV which is far less than line level 1Vpp. So the difference in audio levels at volume control is obvious. Anyway increasing volume level should not be a problem as you must be concerned with output and not the position of volume control.
I am also living with that difference. But no problem as 12'O clock position of my Pearl-2 phono gives me same audio levels as 9'O position for Tuner or DAC.
My 2 paise!

 

[jls001]

+1 to what omishra said. A particular volume position is not sacrosanct. But a very high level of gain at the line level will very likely add noise to your phono preamp's output as the phono preamp already operates at very high gain (~40 dB or sometimes even higher, compared to 6-12 dB gain of typical line level preamps).

 

[greenhorn]

I had never noticed any difference between my XLM and the M55. It turns out that the XLM has a higher output than the ZLM. Maybe a stylus downgrade would help ?

 

[navinsinha]

I had never noticed any difference between my XLM and the M55. It turns out that the XLM has a higher output than the ZLM. Maybe a stylus downgrade would help ?

Thanks All!
I am not very sure but XLM should be above 5mv! In that case, there may not be possible to differentiate between XLM and M55. But ZLM is low gain for sure. I would contact Sachhu also as I have procured from him a MM & MC phono stage, though not used so far!