ET3 On The Way...

[Wildcat]

There is a modification to change the Premier 11 to use EL34 tubes (I believe it was called the Premier 11 XS) but that would only cut the power in half.

But I did have a very similar problem using the EV-1 phono stage with my PV14L and Premier 11--at one or two on the preamp, even with ~91dB/2.83v efficiency, I could not get the sound level quiet enough. I borrowed some Rothwell -10dB attenuators from a local audiophile pal and they made the system usable again. I am surprised that C-J designed the EV-1 to have 10dB extra gain, as it overpowers their own preamps. Their assumption was that it would work well with moving coils with a medium output, not thinking many of us prefer a moving iron or moving magnet cartridge that puts out a standard signal level. I thought of maybe having it modified to knock the gain back by 10dB but it's not worth it at this point. I also run a moving coil occasionally and don't have a step-up that I like, so I am likely going to sell the EV-1 and my solid state phono stage and get one that can cover all the bases properly.