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I'm looking to upgrade my phono pre-amp from a Creak OBH-15 to a EAR 834P or a Wright WPP 200C. If I had my choice, I'd pick the Wright, but I'm concerned about clipping issues because I mainly use my system to record vinyl via a Masterlink, and as many of you know, the Masterlink has no input volume control feature (I'll never figure out why?). This has caused me many sleepless nights. It adds a complication to my choice of equipment that I wish I didn't have.When I first started this journey, I matched my equipment up to the Masterlink. That is, the masterlink dictated what equipment (cartridge/pre-amp) I bought so I would avoid clipping since the no volume control issue. I'm very dissatisfied with my setup, and now I want to upgrade. I'm aiming to get whatever equipment I want, and fix the volume before I go into the Masterlink, so that no matter what cartridge/pre-amp combo I get, or if I decide to upgrade a cartridge in the future, I won't have to worry about clipping in the Masterlink.
So, I'm wondering if using the EAR 834P would be a good idea for volume control into the Masterlink, Would there be a "sonic" tradeoff or loss of fidelity by doing it this way? Seems like a simple solution to me, but my neophyte self is coming to the harsh realization that nothing worthwhile (especially involving vinyl) is easy.
Any suggestions on how to set this up to best control the volume into the masterlink and upgreade my pre-amp at the same time?
Follow Ups:
The EAR 834 with volume control should work pretty good for me though. Right? I see a lot of people with the EAR in their systems.
Being tube with a passive attenuator at the output the EAR may struggle to drive the 10k input impedance of the Masterlink. It may work,
but then again, it may not work (very well).An alternative is the Aqvox Phono 2Ci which has switcheable gain settings in addition to front-mounted pots that control another ~10dB
of gain range (true gain, not attenuation). The output is buffered (RCA and XLR) and drives the 10k well.While sonically very good, the Aqvox is at the lighter/greyer side of things, while I expect the EAR to be darker/colourful.
I reviewed the Aqvox at TNT. The manufacturer has lots of links to other reviews at his site.
That looks like a great solution. Thanks! Would I be correct in assuming that the Aqvox would pretty much be compatible with about any cartridge/TT setup I put with it, and then just use the gain on the phono pre to set my volume into the Masterlink? It can't be that easy?....there's got to be something missing. Forgive me, I'm so new to all of this, and learning it's never as easy as I think.
Have you consider putting a Preamp with rec-out in the chain and use the Rec. out from Pre-Amp?
Sort of. I was soon going to be in the market for a good integrated anyway. For instance....TT > Integrated w/ phono > Alesis Masterlink? Could it be that simple? For some reason I was thinking I might lose some fidelity buy using an integrated instead of just a good stand alone phono pre-amp. That is, a $1k phono pre-amp would probably be a better buy in my setup at this point, than a 1k integrated (NAD etc.)..maybe resulting in better sound. Admittidly probably unfounded reasoning.
I use stand alone phono preamp -> preamp. and Preamp rec out -> masterlink. This way, you have freedom to change out different stand alone phono preamp independent of preamp.
In my experience, it was very hard to find a good integrated preamp with flexible(MC capable and adjustable gain and loading) built in phono stage and have rec-out on top of it. And the time I thought I found a good one, I upgrade my cartridge and have to start it all over again.
Do you have any recommendations for a pre-amp with rec out, say in the 750-1k range, and it could be used. I'm thinking maybe getting the Wright phono to go with it.
Why couldn't you use an attenuator ?
Hmmm. Didn't think about the attenuator. I could probably get the Wright pre-amp, check it out and if all's good, then fine. If there was a problem with input, then get an attenuator. Great idea.
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