External phono preamp for Expert pro 140?

[Tanad]

Hello,

I have a Rega P6 turntable fitted with the Ania Pro MC cartridge. For now I connect it directly to my Expert 140 and I made the required adjustments in the config (MC + output). The only thing I cannot adjust to the recommended Rega settings for the Ania is the impedance. I understand it is fixed act 47 ohms on the Expert, while Rega recommend 100 ohms.

Honestly I am very happy with the sound I get while playing vinyl, though I sometimes find it a bit on the bright side. I am wondering how much this would change if I fitted a Rega MC preamp in between the Expert and the P6 and adjusted the impedance to 100 ohms? Would I even notice the difference? I have BW 703 S2 speakers. I am not too keen on having another box, I bought the Expert to limit clutter, but I am just wondering what I may be missing.

Thanks for any advice.
Tanad

[mikdahl]

I used to have a Rega MC phono preamp to my Rega Planar 6 + Ania and tried this out when I first swapped from Audio Research pre and McIntosh amp to Devialet: The Devialet phono section sounds better! I´m not sure what you mean with "I understand it is fixed act 47 ohms on the Expert"? The impedance is adjustable to 100 Ω in the configurator ("Loading"). Also, I don´t consider the sound to be "on the bright side" (although i have the "original" Ania and of course don´t know what you´re used to...).

[Tanad]

Interesting! I am not surprised the Devialet phono section sounds better in your case as you have a 440. In my case I have a 140, so there may be some differences / compromises in the phono stage vs 440. One of them is that I can't adjust the impedance in the configurator. Hence my question. When I said "bright" I meant "too analytical" even though I don't feel this with every record I play.

[mikdahl]

I see, I thought the options / possibilities in the Configurator were the same...

[Tanad]

Now if anyone would have some insight to share on my initial question regarding impedance, I would be grateful!

[Axel]

Hello,

I have a Rega P6 turntable fitted with the Ania Pro MC cartridge. For now I connect it directly to my Expert 140 and I made the required adjustments in the config (MC + output). The only thing I cannot adjust to the recommended Rega settings for the Ania is the impedance. I understand it is fixed act 47 ohms on the Expert, while Rega recommend 100 ohms.

Honestly I am very happy with the sound I get while playing vinyl, though I sometimes find it a bit on the bright side. I am wondering how much this would change if I fitted a Rega MC preamp in between the Expert and the P6 and adjusted the impedance to 100 ohms? Would I even notice the difference? I have BW 703 S2 speakers. I am not too keen on having another box, I bought the Expert to limit clutter, but I am just wondering what I may be missing.

Thanks for any advice.
Tanad

You may already be aware, but you can tame the treble by adjusting the SRA.    

[thumb5]

Now if anyone would have some insight to share on my initial question regarding impedance, I would be grateful!

If the Devialet is fixed to 47 ohms input impedance for MC, then I can't think of any sensible way to increase it to 100 ohms other than by using an external box of some sort (whether that be a phono preamp or some kind of impedance adjuster).

Have you spoken to Rega to ask whether the difference between 47 and 100 ohm loading is likely to make any noticeable difference, and if so would it reduce the brightness you're hearing?  (I recall received wisdom is that increasing resistive loading tends to increase rather than reduce a tendency to brightness, but I may well be wrong.)

[listener]

Yes, typically Moving Coil uses a parallel resistor of about 100-200 Ohm to the coils. It is at the input of the pre-amp. If it is not fitted, the high freqency impulses overshoot.
Easiest is to solder a resistor into the phono plugs, parallel between the connectors.
My advice would be to by a step-up-transformer. It would have the benefit of the 100 Ohm resistor inside and the extra amplification of about 20dB, that improves the the sound in the way that less amplification is needed at the Devialet input (we have had the hiss debate here at the forum, some time ago). My experience comes from an Ortofon Quintet black.

[thumb5]

Yes, typically Moving Coil uses a parallel resistor of about 100-200 Ohm to the coils. It is at the input of the pre-amp. If it is not fitted, the high freqency impulses overshoot.
Easiest is to solder a resistor into the phono plugs, parallel between the connectors.

The problem @Tanad has is that the impedance of the Devialet 140's phono stage is fixed at 47 ohms for MC, which is lower than the recommended 100 ohms. Adding another resistor in parallel across the input, as you suggested, will lower the input impedance still more (to about 32 ohms), so it is counter-productive.

[Tanad]

Thanks everyone. I have no hissing sound problem - the hiss is there but not audible when I play records.

- adjusting the SRA -> I did not know about that, but it seems like a risky endeavour
- contacting Rega -> I will give this a try though I expect they will advise me to buy their phono preamp
- adding a SUT -> So this would be a better option than a phono preamp if I understand correctly? 20 dB extra amplification sounds interesting but almost too much. In average I have to set the Expert volume around 10-15 dB louder on phono vs. digital sources.