Transformer stepup size

A fellow A'goner was using a high gain phono stage. Just for kicks he borrowed my BentAudio stepups and tried them into the MM stage of his preamp. That setup blew his high gain phono stage out of the water. He literally had it up for sale hear in less than a week.

There is no "always" on this issue. It depends on the components being compared, and possibly on other components in the system as well. As '4yanx' said, how about some specific recommendations instead of dogma.

Hi Raul,
Thanks for the many recommendations. I'll add them to my list in case I decide to upgrade phono stage and/or preamp someday.

The phono stage was a Sonic Frontiers, an SF-1 I think though I never saw or heard it. It had both an MC and an MM phono stage. It was boosting a Shelter 501MkII (.4mv) into a c-j PV-10 preamp. The owner tried the following configurations:

A. 501 >> SF-1 MC input >> PV-10 line input
B. 501 >> BentAudio Mu >> SF-1 MM input >> PV-10 line input
C. 501 >> BentAudio Mu >> PV-10 MM input

He reported that A was the worst, B was much better, C was best. We can ignore C for this discussion since it merely compares the two different MM phono stages. The comparison of interest was A vs. B, where B was reportedly much better.

The SF-1 had three adjustable gain settings: 44, 54 and 62db. I presume (hope) the 62db setting was being used for configuration A and the 44db setting for configuration B. That would put A and B just 2db apart when my 1:10 SUT's were plugged in. Any thoughts?

No disagreement on the SF from the little I've read, but that's irrelevant. If an SF is what my budget allows, why tell me that a more expensive unit is better? If I asked you for tonearm recommendations under $1K I hope you wouldn't insist that I demo a Schroeder Reference.

For this listener, going into the phono stage he already owned, he got better results from a SUT than from the high gain circuit, at virtually equal gain levels. That flat out disproves any absolutist position that a high gain stage is "always" superior to a SUT.

With unlimited resources and freedom to choose from among all available components I agree with you, the simplest path is likely to be best. But that isn't the real world for most people.

Well that sums it up, thank goodness.

In support of, "NEVER USE A STEPUP TRANSFORMER", we shall also adopt, "NEVER LET CIRCUMSTANCES OVERRULE DOGMA."

I stand corrected, humbled even. You have my vote for the next papal vacancy, there could hardly be a stonger candidate.

Welcome back Divo, and my apologies. If I had bit my tongue and not responded to the original digression it might have died when it began. Mea culpa.

For SUT's I've only heard the Mu, so can't offer any tranny comparisons. I'd also be interested in any comparisons that may be offered in response to your question.