TheAnalogSource wrote:oo nga pala...my bad haha
ang defense ko na lang same as pat would say.....eh to start with pangit na ng system haha
sorry i have to take this back....i got confuse with the bunch of phonos i was listening together with the minimax.
...but the 2 mc input infact is a hi/low gain selection to accomodate different mc cartridge output levels not an impedance matching although it is an added plus being inherent to the design. The minimax mc section is a step up transformer thus is a voltage transformer to increase output voltage from the very small voltage generated by the cartridges thus the increase in volume. The difference in impedance is actual a side product if you apply the law of power conservation or something like that. the minimax most likely has a 2-tap sut judging by the look with only 1 transformer on each side thus enable us to have the two gain/impedance option.
....actually you can say the other way that the designer use the sut as an impedance matcher....although concequently there will be a percieved gain in output volume though.
this is just me but i think the gain controls on most phono preamps are meant to match the different output (from say lowest around 0.2mv) of various cartridge to the input level of the main preamp sensitivity which is line level. once line level is achieved more or less, i believe the adjust for volume should be in the main preamp and not in the phono section. As per experience, you get different flavors if you tinker with the phono gain (a more prominent midband in general as you go up) than just simple increase in volume (which you get from increasing the gain control of the preamp).
thus if the system after the phono cannot open up there must be wrong in the system somehow. and no problem cranking up the volume...that is what it is for...although of course you might pushing equipment capacity beyond optimal condition when done all the way (not sure though).
on last note, the minimax is not the last phono there is. you can get a more specialize phono to fulfill your system specific requirement. However my initial post just tells my experience that with any system, at the very least the ones i've listened it with, it matches well not only that it let you hear something new and different but actually synergize well with them and did not compromise anything positive you used to have.