Pre purchase question about a phono pre amp

[Big Bamboo]

Forgive me if this is posted in the wrong place:

My son in law has recently taken an interest in vinyl and owns an Audi technical turntable AT-LP120XUSB. The cartridge puts out 4mV nominally at 1kHz The turntable has a built in phono pre amp, but he is using the phono preamp on his Sony  stereo Solid state amp ( STRDH190). I could not find any detailed specs on the Sony amp relating to input impedances  and the like.

He has an interest in introducing some tube gear into the audio chain and had considered a tube based phono pre amp kit  instead of using the one built into the turntable or integrated ss amp.

So, the questions I have:

1. Does this approach make sense?
2. Will the phono pre amp “play nice" with his ss integrated amp?
3.  Which phono pre amp to choose? I had thought about the reduction 1.1 (possibly with integration upgrade), but would consider the Eros 2 if that was a better choice.

He has no experience building, but I have built a crack with speed ball with zero problems and feel completely comfortable with tackling a more difficult build. I would either help him build it, or just build it myself.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.






 

[Doc B.]

4mV is adequate for the Reduction with the Integration upgrade, and more than adequate for the Eros. I would lean toward the additional gain of the Eros for that output level myself. It's not a given that the input impedance of the Sony is compatible, but most likely it is fine with either preamp. In terms of adding tube flavor, yes, either preamp will do the job.