Seperate phono stage v.s. step up transformer

I add my vote to the posts from 4yanx, Ed, Twl and Hagtech.

No cartridge that plays with a Helikon will have enough output to keep you from needing more gain. Changing cartridges won't help unless you settle for a performance downgrade, which would be crazy on such a nice rig.

See my recent post 'Shelter + BentAudio loading' for details on the BentAudio Mu trannies. John Chapman starts with Stephens & Billington TX103's, finishes them off nicely and adds two great performance features: infinitely variable loading and the fewest possible connections/joints in the signal path. It's a fine, well thought-out product.

The K&K's mentioned by Bombaywalla are well regarded and less costly, but I don't know if they do either of the two things I like about the BentAudio's so elegantly, or at all.

BTW, the specs on the Granite Audio 770 don't say how many dB's of gain the phono and line stages have. You'll need to know before choosing anyone's tranny.

The K&K Audio MC step-up based on Lundahl xformers does 1 of the 2 features of the Bent Audio step-up: fewest possible connections/joints in the signal path.

In fact, Lundahl xformers are one of the very few xformers that come WITHOUT flying leads. The Lundahl xformer comes with pin-outs (like an I.C.). The xformer is attched to the PC board & you solder to xformer pin. This makes a very secure connection as you do not have to worry about soldering your wire to the xformer flying leads.

Changing the cartridge load is more cumbersome (but more secure) as you have to un-solder & re-solder resistors. It has not been a problem for my 2 friends as one uses a Grado Sonata hence the load is 47K while the other one uses a Benz L2 with a 300 Ohms loading.

Having this one additional feature of cart. load changing for $700 (vs. K & K Audio's <$300) did not make any sense to me! Both xformers are imported - one from the UK & one from Sweden. One seems to be ridiculously expensive while the other is much more price worthy. I can practically guarantee that the TX102 is *not* 2X better despite its more than 2X cost!

From my personal experience, I ask the skeptics to give this step-up a listen. You will be very pleasantly surprised!

The Granite Audio 770 already has variable cartridge loading with the use of some vishay resistors adjustable between 1 to 100000 ohms. I assume if you have it once in the phono chain it is not needed in a step-up transformer correct?

Agaffer, nice purchase I pressed my luck with one of these preamps as well and have been very happy for the last 5 months. I did bring the preamp over to several dealers and one wasn't able to best the Granite's built-in phono stage and another one didn't exceed its performance until we got into ~$10000 linestage and separate phone stage pairing. These two experiences have firmed up in my mind that the Granite preamp is certainly no slouch on vinyl, or as a linestage for that matter.

I have a custom phono stage built for me by Kevin at K & K. I also have great respect for John Chapman and the Bent products. I've heard nothing but good things about his step-up and I was very impressed with his passive pre which I used to own but which did not mesh with the rest of my system at the time.

I will say that the K&K is a superb unit that will equal or best anything up to $4K that I've heard (and includes quite a few). The phono stage is based on the 6n1p tube (two) - cheap and superior to the 6dj8/6922/7308 and many applications. Mine has the built-in Lundahl step-up (10dB extra gain) and it has four settings for MC (100, 300, 1K, and 47K Ohms) and two for MM (47K Ohm and 47K Ohm in parallel with 220pF). It runs QUIET within the volume range of any listening I'd ever do and sounds absolutely superb. Highly recommended and the best value I've ever purchased in audio.

Yes, considering the none of the replied have heard in the lived a any serious step-ups or any serious MC active phonocorrectors you have a lot of opportunity to get around here a qualified answer.

Good luck,
Romy the Cat