I'm new to Step Up Transformers

My mistake - I definitely have the PS-1.  The setting I settled on was 200 ohm I believe.   

My mistake - I definitely have the PS-1.  The setting I settled on was 200 ohm I believe.   

That's way too low. I would suggest trying at least 400 and check your set up - recheck your VTA, tracking weight etc . The Paua is a very smooth sound, slightly warmer than the more expensive soundsmith's due to the aluminium cantilever. It should not be sounding bright and thin at either 400 or 1000.

Have you tried the two gain settings on the MC input ?

Have the SS Paua and Hyperion MR cartridges.  SS recommends on a loading above 470 ohms and states that below this level upper frequencies will be rolled off.  My phono is adjustable between 25 ohms and 1750 ohms in 25 ohm increments.  After my Paua was rebuilt a year ago it took a while for it to settle (about 15 hours at least) and initially was not happy with the minimal loading settings above 470 provides.  Ultimately, after a little experimentation and a lot of listening, it now performs best at 725 ohms in my system.  My Hyperion MR loads best at 525 ohms. 

I am constantly surprised when others report they hear important differences between two different load resistances, using LOMC or LOMI cartridges, that are numerically very close to each other on a scale of 100 to 47K ohms. Like 725 vs 525 ohms or 800 vs 1000 ohms. I believe the reports because they’re subjective, but I’m surprised anyway; I don’t hear important differences between such values. In fact I think of loading in terms of logarithmic differences. So i might try 100, 1000, maybe 10,000 ohms and then 47K ohms. If the cartridge permits that array of load Rs, I choose one among them but usually the difference in sonics is not dramatic. Atmasphere points out that one is actually loading the phono stage. Maybe my array of phono stages is less sensitive than some others. One thing I would not do is choose a load resistance lower than recommended. Notice that no maker sets an upper limit on load R. None say not to use 47K ohms.

lewn,

I agree with you.  The higher the number the LOWER the loading.  At low value of resistors (meaning a lot of loading) small numerical changes do matter a lot (like 30 ohms and 50 ohms are quite different), but, once one gets above 150 ohms, there already isn't much loading and it should not matter that much.  The only thing that does matter is where RFI is interfering and overloading the phonostage.  In that case, a small amount of loading may be needed to cure that problem and this should not affect the overall sound.  A friend suffered RFI that we traced to the default setting on his phonostage being 100kohms (essentially no loading); when we went with 1kohm loading, the problem went away.

On many cartridges, I prefer a lower level of loading (high value resistor)  than most people choose for their setup.  This delivers a wide open sound.  Jonathan Carr, the designer of Lyra cartridges said that modern MC cartridges do not need additional loading to tame high frequency resonant peaks because those peaks are primarily in the ultrasonic range.  When loading does improve the sound, it is because those ultrasonic peaks can overload phonostages that don't have enough margins for peak levels.  I don't have that issue myself, probably because my phono stage is a tube unit that doesn't have extended ultrasonic frequency response.