Ortofon 309 vs. SME 3012 for SPUs

Dover, you are possibly right, most tube phonostages I have heard uses an SUT inside for the first level of amplification. You possibly mean a full tube amplifier phonostage without any SUT, can you please suggest examples that you think are worth considering ?

Most SS phonostages I have heard, even the good ones sound nice but with a good SUT, gain a certain grace in the sonics.

Pani - there are not a lot of tube preamps that can amplify MC's with all tubes in the phono. The Marantz has seen off my old Jadis, Manley Ref, Klyne ( all owned ) and quite a few others.
The Conrad Johnson TEA2SE is ok for about 0.4mv up, no trannies.
CAT preamps are quite good. Heard one recently sounding very good with Micro Seiki 5000/Graham Phantom/Benz.
Some of the early VTL's had all tube MC capability, but the output impedances from the line stage really only suit tube power amps.
Wavelength Audio phono - this would be my choice.
TW Acustic Raven does a very high gain full tube based phono on the Thoress preamp.

you should try to find a japanese only 500-limited edition of SPU "spirit". it ain't silver wired but a rumour among Japanese audiophiles is it has the best price/performance ratio compared to any SPU. it ain't exactly a silver meister but it cost 40% less while performing significantly better than classic (for 20% more), especially on modern production.

I use a 309D arm, so I figure it deserves at least one SPU in it's life. Can any users commented on the advantages, disadvantages of the bodied verses N versions of the cartridge. The latter are quite a bit cheaper. Thanks

The Spirit is a very nice SPU and I agree the price/performance is a sweet spot. Most are sold and they are super rare outside Japan. I've only very briefly compared them but I liked my Royal GM more. Once I can get a rear tonearm up and running on my Raven for the SPU I will do a more serious comparison.

In fact thats what attracted me to this thread. I was going to use my Jelco 12" or an FR64fx for this purpose but thought have been turning to alternate 12" SPU friendly tonearms like FR66fx, Ikeda IT407 SME 3012-R, M2-12R or the Ortofon RMG309i. So many options!