Best Phono Preamp (2026): A Cartridge Puts Out a Thousandth of Line Level

The two jobs it does

Gain. A moving magnet cartridge produces roughly 5 millivolts. A line input, the kind marked CD or AUX, expects something closer to 1 to 2 volts. That is a factor of several hundred. Plug a turntable into an aux input and you hear a faint, distant version of the record even with the volume up.

RIAA equalisation, which is the part most people have never heard of. When a record is cut, the bass is deliberately reduced and the treble boosted, following a standard curve agreed across the industry. There are good physical reasons: large bass excursions would need impractically wide grooves, and boosting treble at the cutting stage means surface noise is relatively quieter when you reverse it.

Playback has to apply the exact inverse: boost the bass back up and cut the treble back down. That is RIAA equalisation, and it is why a turntable through a line input sounds not just quiet but thin and harsh. You are hearing the record as cut, not as intended.

So a phono preamp is not an optional upgrade. It is a required part of the chain, and the only question is where it lives.

Check what you already have, because buying a second one is the common mistake:

• An input marked PHONO, usually with a small ground screw next to it, means your amplifier has one built in
• Many modern turntables have a switchable built-in preamp, often a LINE/PHONO switch on the back
• Any turntable with a USB output or Bluetooth certainly has one inside

Never run two in series. The result is enormous gain, wildly wrong equalisation and heavy distortion. If your turntable has a switch, set it to PHONO when using an external preamp.

MM, MC, and the practical details

Cartridge type sets the gain you need.

Moving magnet (MM) is what almost every turntable under a few hundred pounds uses. Output around 5mV, needing roughly 40dB of gain. The stylus is usually user-replaceable, which is a real practical advantage.

Moving coil (MC) cartridges are lower mass and widely considered better, with output around 0.5mV — a tenth of MM — so they need about 60dB. An MM-only preamp will not drive one properly, and all three preamps here are MM. If you ever fit an MC cartridge you need a preamp that supports it.

Then the details that matter in a real room.

Grounding. A turntable has a thin ground wire, and connecting it to the preamp's ground post is what removes the loud hum people assume is a broken cable. If you hear hum, check this first.

A rumble filter cuts very low frequencies below the music, which is where motor noise, footfalls and warped-record wobble live. On a suspended floor it is genuinely useful, and the ART here has one.

Placement matters. A phono stage is amplifying millivolts, so it picks up interference easily. Keep it away from power supplies, wall-wart transformers and anything with a motor, and keep the short cartridge cable away from mains leads.

Cheap wall-wart power supplies are a common noise source. A preamp with a better supply is often quieter for reasons unrelated to its circuitry.

Getting the rest of the chain right

Fix hum at the ground wire first. The thin single wire from the turntable goes to the ground post on the preamp or amplifier. A disconnected ground is the cause of most loud hum, and people replace cables for weeks before checking it.

Set tracking force properly. The downforce on the stylus is specified by the cartridge maker, usually between 1.5 and 2.5 grams, and a cheap stylus gauge costs very little. Too light causes mistracking and distortion on loud passages and damages records; too heavy wears both faster.

Level the turntable. A spirit level on the platter. An off-level deck puts uneven side pressure on the groove walls.

Replace the stylus. Styli wear out, typically somewhere between 500 and 1000 hours, and a worn one damages records permanently. This is the most neglected maintenance in vinyl.

Keep records clean. Surface noise that people attribute to the preamp or the cartridge is very often dust in the groove.

Mind the speaker placement before upgrading electronics. Moving speakers away from a wall changes the bass far more than a phono stage does, and it is free.