Kanchi, I don’t know why this is some sort of revelation. Even you in your opening post suggested that the MC26 might be a bad match for your new cartridge. I’m glad Dave and fsonic joined in to nudge you into proving it for yourself. The pathway for a permanent cure, if you want to continue to use the high output vdh, is now laid out before you. |
I wonder whether the "balanced" outputs or inputs on the Cary gear are just XLR inputs that feed single-ended circuitry. (I don't know this for a fact, but Cary is not known for balanced circuits. On the other hand, I am no expert on the current marketplace.) Nor did I think the Ypsilon had a balanced circuit, other than possibly XLRs for use of balanced cables. The VPS100 uses an LCR type RIAA circuit. It is very difficult to implement LCR in true balanced mode; it would require very closely matched parts to work well. Also, a check on the Ypsi website says nothing about balanced circuits in the VPS100.
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Raul, You make a good point that the Cary can give 24db of gain if connected in balanced mode. I guess you may be suggesting that the Cary could drive the amplifiers in balanced mode. That is a good idea if the amplifiers have a balanced input circuit. I am of the same mind as you; if it were me I would not want to add a SUT, but the OP seemed to be bending in that direction. I am doubtful that the amps have balanced input, but the OP can tell us.
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With a $30,000 MM phono stage like the Ypsilon, you want the best possible SUT, which might mean spending some bucks. Likewise if you go the route of a line stage with more gain than the Cary. Either way. I’ve heard the Ypsilon and it IS special. Dave Slagle can also be found at Intact Audio. |
I just had an idea I should have had at the outset. You might consider consulting Dave Slagle of EMIA. Dave is the man when it comes to SUTs and their design and build. He can tell you what you need, or if you need it, and then make it for you. Be sure to tell him the whole story, including all your equipment. He is a nice guy and totally honest. (Needless to say, I have no financial relationship whatever with Dave or EMIA.) His SUTs are as good as it gets.
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Before you invest in another line stage, you need to be sure that it has more gain than your present line stage. I would suggest at least 3db or 6db more gain, and then you could do away with any SUT. I would not go with the McIntosh, but that’s just an opinion. I also notice that Ypsilon makes a SUT with a step up ratio of five, the MC5. That would be another good solution to your problem, if you can get a trade-in on your MC 26. I already mentioned the MC10. |
Kanchi, as you already know, your present SUT is a very bad match with your cartridge and phono. With a 1:26 turns ratio your cartridge is seeing 69 ohms. Thus you’re losing gain and should be experiencing an attenuated treble. But probably there are other issues causing an exaggerated treble. Would your dealer or Ypsilon maybe offer you a trade in, your MC26 for an MC10 (or even a lower ratio SUT, if Ypsilon make one)? That would be the way to go if you don’t want to alter your downstream components.
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There is no one single best load R. The only rule of thumb is you'd like the load to be about 10X the value of the internal resistance of the cartridge, or greater. When you go below the 10X ratio, you begin to lose both gain and HF response. The lower below 10X, the worse the phenomenon. And paralleling resistors on either side of the SUT is fraught with compromises and side issues; I wouldn't do it. I hope you do also know that if you start at 470 ohms, using a 1:10 SUT, you cannot achieve any load R greater than 470 ohms. Any resistor you place in parallel at the input will lower the load R. Some swear by silver transformers and others prefer copper windings. There is no consensus on that except silver is apt to cost a lot more than copper. Ypsi make a 1:10 SUT that is likely to be well suited to your phono stage; that's what I would recommend if you are willing to spend the big bucks. Personally, I think the SLP05 is the weakest link in your chain, and I would go for a slightly higher gain linestage, if it were me. But maybe I am being unfair; I haven't heard a Cary preamp in years.
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Kanchi, Your linestage adds 17db of gain, according to the Cary website. So, with the Ypsi and the Cary linestage you have a total of 56db (39db + 17db) of gain, which is a voltage step-up of about 630X. Thus when the cartridge is putting out 0.95mV, the SLP linestage is putting out about 0.630V. Bear in mind also that the rating of 0.95mV is for the frequency of 1kHz and the stylus velocity of 5cm/sec. A large fraction of "music" will produce transiently higher output V. For many amplifiers, that would be sufficient to drive them to a decent fraction of full output, at least. However, your Cary 211 amplifiers require 2.0V for full output, according to Cary. Therein lies your problem. The 211 is a difficult tube to drive. In lieu of buying a SUT, you could instead replace your linestage with one that produces more gain. It's not hard to find excellent linestages that are in the 20db to 25db range for gain. That would eliminate a whole slew of problems with matching a SUT. And based on the typical cost of high end SUTs, the cost differential is not that great. With a megabuck phono stage like the Ypsi, you don't want to match it with a bargain SUT. You stand the risk of losing the qualities you've paid for.
To answer your question put to Elliot, with any SUT, what you want to know is the turns ratio. Knowing the turns ratio or voltage gain afforded by the SUT, you can easily calculate the load seen by the cartridge, if you know the value of the fixed load resistance built into the phono stage (typically 47K ohms, which is what Ypsi uses). If you can find a SUT with a 1:5 turns ratio or a 5X voltage gain (there are calculators on line if it makes you feel better to convert voltage gain to db), the load R seen by the cartridge is 47K ohms divided by the square of the turns ratio. Thus for 1:5, the quantity is 47K/25 = 1880 ohms. For a 1:10 SUT, much easier to find, you have 47K/100 = 470 ohms. Both loads should be easy for the vdH to drive. If you don't like the idea of replacing your linestage, I would suggest you borrow a SUT with a 1:10 ratio and see how it goes. 1:10 might be fine.
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Kanchi, I am trying to figure out what you're getting from what you already own. According to the Ypsilon website, "MC26L" sounds like the designation for one of their SUTs. And VPS100 denotes their phono stage. Since Ypsilon seems to use the db gain factor in naming their SUTs, I assume your SUT provides 26db of gain. (I hate that they use the term "amplification factor", by the way. It adds nothing, because what one needs to know is the turns ratio which indicates the voltage gain.) 26db of gain converts to voltage gain of about 20X, which means that the output of your 0.95mV cartridge would be seen by the inputs of the VPS100 as ~20mV. I can well imagine that this much voltage (and much higher signal voltages in actual practice) might overdrive the phono stage and cause the distortion I guess you are hearing. On the other hand, the VPS100 by itself provides 39db of gain or about an 89X voltage gain. This begs the question: are you using an active linestage downstream from the Ypsilon phono stage? If you do have an active linestage, take note of its intrinsic gain. If it is at least 10-12 db, you may have enough total gain just in the YPS100 plus the active linestage to drive your amplifier to adequate output. This depends also upon the input sensitivity of your amplifiers and on the efficiency of the speakers. In other words, you may not need any SUT.
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