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What is RIAA - Do I need it

If your stereo amplifier does not have an input for a record player, you should use a phono stage between your turntable and your amplifier. The output of your turntable follows a gain-bandwidth curve called the RIAA compensation curve. The standard line level input on your stereo does not. Records will sound very strange without an RIAA preamp.

 The RIAA compensation curve was adopted in the mid 1950s, as a way of dramatically improving the fidelity of playback. This curve takes into account the limitations of the mechanical recording system on the record surface. At low frequencies, our MM amplifier provides 26dB of gain. At medium frequencies it provides no gain, and at high frequencies it provides 24dB of attenuation.

What does RIAA stand for:-

Recording Industry Association of America. This group develops standards for recordings in this country. The RIAA "curve" is a record/playback compensation curve applied to LP records that allows them to have flat response with minimum distortion

General information on phono input

 When choosing a cartridge for a given phono section, it is the "gain" or output that have to match.

  • Our standard Premier Line / MM Phono pre-amplifier has 'low-gain' phono preamplifying sections (35dB of gain typically). This pre-amp require the use of either moving magnet cartridges (typically in the 2.0 to 5.0mv range) or high output moving coil types (generally 1.5 to 2.0mV output).
  • Our Premier Quattro (Our best preamplifier accept low-output moving coil cartridges - which have outputs of .2 to .9mV. This high gain phono sections will typically have approx 63dB to 68dB of gain.

 Different cartridge types:

  • MM (Moving Magnet) cartridges are designed to play into 47k ohms or higher input impedance. All our pre-amps in the Premier Range have MM's will typically be loaded at 47K ohms. Moving magnet phono cartridges have a typical output of ~3mv at 47K Ohm load. Moving magnet cartriges are the ones most commonly used.
     
  • MC (Moving Coil) cartridges are typically designed to be loaded anywhere from 10 ohms to 1000 ohms. Our Premier Quattro Pre-amp is set to 600 ohms, the most common. Because our pre-amps use a directly cathode coupled design exact matching is not so essential as the pre-amp does a lot of the matching internally..