Step Up Transformers….Are they Worth the Trouble?

My experience is with the H3000 mk2, so it might be of marginal interest, although my understanding is that the H6500 uses a similar circuit, SUTs, and power supply. I find the Allnic to provide deeply satisfying inner detail and harmonic structure, excellent dynamics and plenty of openness and air around instruments. It’s tubey but not too tubey, providing that palpable quality without overt coloration. It’s quiet. These qualities are pretty much the Allnic house sound, I believe. After a decade I have no desire to replace it.

The main downside is that it is really only usable with MC cartridges that are SUT-friendly. So that leaves out, e.g., the top Benz carts like the LPS and Gullwing, which combine high DCR with higher output. OTOH, the Ebony TR is a perfect mate to the 1:40 option on the Allnic native SUT. I’m currently using an MC Diamond and Lyra Etna Lambda with excellent results. So the limitations are minor but real.

The MM inputs are quite good. I run several MM/MI and they sound terrific. The native Allnic SUTs get slagged sometimes on forums but I think they are exceedingly open and resolving without being thin. I’ve compared them to Bob’s, K&K using copper Lundahl LL1931, Quadratic, Rothwell, and Phase Tech (all of which I still own except the Quadratic and Rothwell) and I consistently prefer the native Allnic SUTs. Of course, this could be in part because they’re built in and need no extra cabling.

Another oddity of the H3000, and I’d surmise the H6500, is that the external power supply controls the sound to an absurd degree. This means your choice of rectifier tube will have an extreme effect on all aspects of the sound. The good news is that you only have to roll one tube and it seems all 5ar4 analogs are OK. The other tubes can stay stock. What you place the PS upon will also have an outsized effect, as will your choice of footers. The stock footers do it a serious disservice, IMO, making the sound too dark and unresolving. So you’ll have to do some tweaking but the results, at least to me, are worth the effort.

@lalitk, sure thing, you’re quite welcome. If you get it in and want to talk about anything, just PM me.

@pindac : very best wishes to you.

@mulveling : I certainly respect your knowledge and your ears, and those of Kevin Hayes, too, having been a VAC man myself for a long time. But I have to disagree about the LL1931Ag. I recently picked up a last-gen K&K Maxxed Out with the silver Lundahls. I love ’em, finding them deeper, more resolving, and more "lit from within," to use a hackneyed audiophile trope, than the copper version, which I’ve had for years in a K&K Premium SUT. Just goes to show, to each their ears!

@lalitk : I’m with @lewm : the Etsuro Urushi SUT might be different but not necessarily better and quite possibly worse. It is 1:20, which your Allnic offers (along 1:26, which you might even prefer with a .25 mV cartridge at 3 ohms DCR). And your Allnic silver-wound transformers are far from broken in at this point. I’d say listen for a few months before considering the expense and electronic complication of any outboard SUT.

(Herron being almost a tad aggressive in upper mids by comparison).

@mulveling I found this to be true of the most recent Herron linestage, as well, which I bought and then returned. My main preamp is a VAC.