Originally Posted by
Scott Dodge
Ah... I bought a fairly modern turntable, and it's got a handy preamp on/off switch. It seems alot of the newer recievers have preamps built in to the phono channel... i use it all the time.
It has nothing to do with it being a "modern" turntable, the output of the cartridge is what determines whether there is enough voltage to drive a phono stage in any preamp. Higher quality moving coil cartridges output typically ranges from 0.08mV to 2.5mV where a moving magnet cartridge has output of 4.0mV and up. A lot of the new receivers seem to be missing a phono stage any more and you need to plug into the axillary input and need a high output cartridge.
Typical pricing for moving coil cartridges starts around $400.00 where the cartridges that come with most turntables are moving magnet designs in the below $100.00 range.