Step Up Transformer Question


Ok, so bear with me as this is new terrain for me. I was quite happy with how things were sounding and then I accidentally bumped the stylus of my Cadenza Black and snapped the cantilever clean off. I did some research and ultimately decided to have Steve at VAS at fix my cartridge but it was going to take a few weeks and there was going to be no way to play the Christmas vinyl that my wife loves so much. She told me to buy another cartridge so we could have Christmas records. I was stunned. I found a great deal on a Winfeld Ti on this site and pulled the trigger. I've got it on my table and it sounds amazing. 

After speaking with Steve though, I'm going to trade in my Cadenza and have him build me a wood body cartridge to have something different. It will also be 0.2mv output. I think I've got the 2nd arm situation sorted (gonna buy a Wand and a pod to mount it on) which leaves the phono pre. I love my Rogers PA-2 and it is switchable between MC and MM with 2 different inputs in the back. Finally got the SUT part. I've been looking and trying to figure things out. I spoke with Roger and he said the transformer built into the PA-2 is 1:10 and with that I can achieve 70 or so dB of gain. I did a lot of reading and looking and while I'm sure a 4k+ SUT is amazing that's just not where I'm at with all the other expenses at the moment. I saw the Bellari MT502 was a stereophole recommended component for many years and Amazon had one on sale for like $349 or something. Figured can't hurt to try it, it's Amazon so I can always return it. I plugged it in with some admittedly questionable interconnects I had lying around and when I put the phono stage k there was a bit more hum than I'm used to but I said let's have a listen. Holy shit. This little thing blew my mind. Better impact, tighter bass, more space around instruments so better staging, improved transients. This puts me in an interesting place. 

This is an extremely inexpensive piece and it has changed my system quite a bit. I think the little extra gain I get even at 1:12 brings the cartridge to life. My question is where do I go from here? Bob's makes the sky 30 which is switchable from 1:15 to 1:30 which I like because I can play with the gain tubes in my preamp and potentially go to a quieter 12au7 than the 12ax7 that's currently in there. Will that be a real improvement? Less hum? Had also considered ordering a Rothwell from jolly old England but can't find much on them. Thoughts? I'd like to keep this sub 1k or so for now. Maybe I'll save up for a big boy SUT later. 

rmdmoore

Showing 2 responses by whart

Good point on asking Steve Leung, there @Dogberry. I also would not underestimate the N Clayton builds- I needed something not spendy for my vintage system based on old Quads and was using a VAS Franken-Denon cartridge Steve put together. Clayton may be taking a few days off for the holidays- but offers blue Cinemags, as well as vintage transformers. There is also a guy on SHF who custom builds some old stock Altec Peerless- he used to work at Altec and had a stash.

I remember first looking at SUTs years ago when I was still running an ARC SP-10 --it had gain, but the preamp was notorious for microphony. At the time, I was trying to find the elusive Expressive Technologies unit- no go.

I use an Allnic phono with built in SUTs on my main system- readily adjustable with the turn of a knob. I like that feature-there are differences in sound based on the settings. My dumbed down approach is to look at the internal impedance of the cartridge and multiply by 10 for the load seen by the cartridge. The secondary (or output) from the SUT will be 47k.

On the cables, I do use the high end spread in the main system, but on the vintage system, use Analysis Plus -- well made, cost effective, and suitable for a system of that period. 

Good hunting.