SUT's -Looking for one with some meat on the bones

@three_easy_payments, thanks for your informative comment!

I would add for the record that the moving magnet input of the OP’s phono stage provides 5 db less gain than is provided by your VTPH-2A, so he would need a SUT gain of 23 db to bring the signal level at the output of the phono stage to the same point as you have with your 18 db SUT. Which would result in presenting the cartridge with an even lower impedance than the 280 ohms his phono stage presents when its built-in SUTs are used at their lowest gain/highest impedance setting.

Also, although I have no experience with Hana cartridges I’m guessing that the consequences of excessive loading would mainly involve some combination of compromises to dynamics, resolution of detail, and transient response. Which would seem to be pretty much the opposite of the issues the OP has reported. So, again, that reinforces the notion that the root cause of the problem is elsewhere.

Best regards,

-- Al

The one technical issue I see in pairing the Allnic 1201 with the Hana SL is a relatively minor one, I believe, and one that I suspect is probably not a significant contributor to the specific sonic issues you have described. But it further reinforces the notion that using an external SUT is not the way to go in trying to resolve those issues.

Specifically, the cartridge specs provide a minimum load impedance recommendation of 400 ohms. If you are using the lowest gain setting of the 1201’s built-in SUTs (22 db) the cartridge will be presented with a load impedance of 280 ohms, well under the minimum recommendation. And if you are using any of the higher gain settings of the built-in SUTs that load impedance will be even lower.

And a similar situation would most likely arise if you were to use an external SUT which provides sufficient gain for your 0.5 mv cartridge.

So that is one more reason why as others have suggested it would be best to pursue other approaches to resolving the issue.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

To repeat an earlier question, what phono stage are you using? And are you presently using a SUT; and if so what model is it, and how long is the cable between it and the phono stage? (I ask the latter question because capacitance on the output side of a SUT will be presented to the cartridge multiplied by the square of the SUT's turns ratio, and hence much higher than it actually is).

Regards,
-- Al