Can I use a step up transformer?

Dear Tuhchan, the reason of my reluctance to mess with SUT's

was Dertonarm's description of matching the impedance and

inductance of involved carts and SUT's. I own + 40 MC carts

with impendance variations from 2 Ohm till 48 Ohms. From the

pictures of your carts which you posted to me I think that you

own + 100 MC carts. How many SUT's do you own?

I own FR- FRT- 4 with 3, 10, 30 and 100 Ohm but also Denon

AU-S1 with 3> 40 Ohms. I prefer Denon which is more ''puristic''

made. No switsches and (many) soldering points between all

the wire but direct connection between transformers and input/

output connectors. This Denon obviously contradicts Dertonarm's

assertinon as well as your ''precisely align the two facing coils''.

Assuming that my guess about the number of your MC carts is

correct you should own at least 25 SUT's (grin).

Dear Thuchan, I am a novice in this field and also very cautious

because of mentioned Dertonarm's ''theory'' reg. matching relationship.

 So I started with FR-FRT-4 which has 3, 10, 30

and 100 Ohms possiblities. I wanted to ''cover'' as many of my

MC carts as possible. The result was such that I wanted ''more''

so I bought this Denon AU-S1 which got many praises. So far

I am very happy with the results. I am also aware that I can't

compete with you or Raul. Anyway I am aware of my financial

bondaries and this was the primary reason to avoid SUT's for

a long time.

The fact is that, say, Ortofon and Fidelity research, made SUT's

for nearly each MC they produced. It is also a fact that the most

tube pres use SUT's for the added amplification (to the MM stage).

The question is if the later ''transistor pres'' compensated for their

weakness in the 80is. Anyway a good MC is expensive while an

combo of MM pre and SUT is not or need not to be. My assumption

is that a good MM pre is not difficult to produce and should be

consequntly not (very) expensive. BTW I have two systems in one

of which I use Basis Exclusive without SUT's and the other , Jasmine

LP 2 with improved MM stage for which I settled on Denon AU-

S1 (3>40 Ohms). I am very happy with this Denon and feel no

need at all to switch to the MC input .  

The design philosophy of my Basis Exclusive is the opposite of

the design of Halcro's Halcro. My MM stage can be only used in

unbalanced mode while except the input capacity for 100pF and

320pF there are no other adjustment possibilities. The MC

adjustments possibilities on the  other side are ''endless''.

There are the 12 fold Dip switches for the resistance and 6 fold

switches for the ''gain adjustment''. The min (basis)  gain is 32 dB

the max 70 dB. The added gain (to 32 dB) can be adjusted with

+ 4 dB, 8, 12, 18, 24 and 32 dB. The (obvious) recommendation

is to chose the lowest possible gain in order to get the lowest

possible noise. Ergo: for the LOMC's is the question if +.-70

dB amplification produces more noise than an well chosen

SUT.

Well this consensus is remarcable because it is between two opposite SUT's philosophies. According to Raul the amplification  of the signal is what counts by the SUT's while according to Thuchan (and Dertonarm) the matchng of inductance and impedance between the involved ''parties '' is crucial. The later mentioned philosophy was the primary reason for me not to mess with SUT's.

But I was not able to resist the temptation and bought (at last) two

samples for cheap ($500 and $650) : FR- FRT 4 ($500) and Denon

AU-S1 ( $650). Whatever philosophy is right or wrong I am very

happy with my Denon which I use with all my MC carts. However

I use this SUT in combination wth my Jasmine LP 2 phono-pre.

My other phono-pre the Basis Exclusive does not need a SUT.