Hi all. I have just decided to get into vinyl. I have a Rega 3 TT with Linn LV X arm and Shure v15 III cartridge, which is moving coil.

How might I hook up a phono preamp for the MC Cartridge with my 990?

The Shure cartridge is not a moving coil, but rather a traditional moving magnet, and as such will have a higher output level of around 5mV.

I have my Jolida JD-9 phono preamp connected to one of the free inputs to my 990. In my case, I used the AUX input and renamed it TURNTABLE so that I would not be confused with the current PHONO input currently on the 990.

Slbenz

I just bought the cartridge on EBay. The listing says it is a moving coil cartridge. To my knowledge, V15's aren't moving coil...

I am confused as well...

Here's the listing:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150214970169&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=005

Shure never made moving coil cartridges. All their cartridges were moving magnet types. If somebody is trying to say otherwise on eBay, they're wrong at best, and deliberately misleading at worst. At any rate, I'd never buy a used cartridge since the stylus is so easily abused, intentionally or unetentionally.

I think the seller is confused. Like Altec said, Shure only makes MM carts. If you haven't searched already, here is the owner's manual to your new Shure MM cart: http://www.shure.com/stellent/groups/public/@gms_gmi_web_ug/documents/web_resource/us_pro_v15iii_ug.pdf

Slbenz

I think you're right. The seller must just be confused. Well, this is ideal. I don't need a preamp now... I can just use the 990's, correct?

Would I be missing anything>?

That's right, Dude - the Shure is perfectly compatible with the 990's PHONO input. As for "missing anything", the sound should be fine (assuming your used cartridge's stylus is undamaged), if my experience with an Audio Technica cartridge is any guide, and this AT didn't have the reputation - nor the price! - of the Shure V15. Of course there are plenty of standalone phono preamps, some costing more than 12 times the price of the 990, and I am sure many of them will outperform the 990's phono preamp section: more detail, better extreme bass and highs, stereo imaging, etc. It's a pay for what you get world, and sometimes you even get what you pay for. Best.

There is no reason why phono preamps need to cost a lot of money. They are electronically simple, with simple methods of applying the RIAA equalization. Of course, that doesn't stop some companies from charging vast sums on what is basically a simple circuit. The laws of diminishing returns is reached quite rapidly with such a basic circuit. The chassis is likely to cost more than the circuit inside, especially if 3/8" thick billet faceplates are involved.

Almost any reasonably good IC, transistor or tube circuit will provide bandwidth, distortion, and noise performance which is better than the vinyl it's self. Vinyl is limited in the bass region by the practical excursion of the grooves, the compliance of the stylus, and above all, low frequency noise from the mechanical nature of the reproduction method. The high end is pretty well signed off by 15kHz due to practical limitations on detail which can be cut into mechanical grooves, especially on the inner bands of an LP.

It's a miracle that vinyl can sound so great, given the hurdles it has to overcome, but the fact is that it does it very well. Better than most commercial digital recordings from my experience.

That you - and I too, Altec - can enjoy the sound of vinyl so much, often more than CD for many people, even those who've grown up on CD sound, in spite of the superiority of CD specifications, makes me doubt that the "simplicity" of phono preamp circuits is the whole story. If it were, wouldn't all competently made phono preamps, or preamp sections, sound pretty much the same? But is that really true? I wonder if anybody reading this has actually heard different phono preamps, fed by the same record players and pickups and feeding the same front ends, amplifiers, and speakers. Not an easy test to arrange, and there couldn't be instant A-B comparisons. But how interesting it would be, at least to those of us really interested in music and sound quality.

I've designed several phono preamps (including the one I now use), and I can say pretty confidently that the differences, while subtle, are real in terms of sound quality. However this has more to do with the topology chosen for a design rather than other considerations, such as the amount of money thrown at a design.

ICs sound different than discrete transistors or tubes, but all IC designs (within limits of good design practices of course) are going to sound virtually identical because of the large amount of negative feedback involved with this type of design.

Discrete transistors (and FETs), and especially tube designs, are going to have more obvious differences in sound quality between these different designs.

However - and this is the important part - none of these design topologies are going to cost a lot of money, relatively speaking, to build. It's very, very hard to "throw more money" at such a simple circuit and realize any "better" sound quality. Contrary to what many manufacturer's marketing departments would have us believe, "designer" resistors, capacitors and associated parts are _not_ going to effect sound quality one way or the other. However, using these "designer" components is going to add to the cost of the design.

A competent design in the first place, regardless of the "cost" of the parts, is going to swamp any differences made in sound by making a design of more complexity, or cost, than necessary, In fact, there is a lot of empirical and objective evidence that points to the fact that the simplest designs are the ones which are likely to sound the best. The sound quality of such simple circuits as single ended triode power amplifiers bears this out.

The limit of any "improvement" in sound quality is reached by using high quality, yet not overpriced capacitors (polystryene, polypropalene), and 1% metal film resistors. However, using such competent, verses overpriced, components gives marketing departments nothing to crow over.

I might add (from personal experience ) that the Outlaw products represent the best of this competently designed approach.

Thanks, Altec, for the wise words, and I hope the "best of competently designed approach" applies to the phono preamp. It certainly sounds good, though I wish it had about 10db more gain with typical MM cartridges. That's the amount I have to turn the volume control up for the sound level to match CD or FM sources. Scott, are you reading this?