Hatari,
I recommend to you the Bent Audio Mu to use with what I hear is a wonderful phono in your Shindo. It is without a doubt the finest step up in my experience. This includes the copper version. I feel the cooper version is better than anything I have tried and I have tried many. Unbelievably, the silver version is a significant improvement over the copper.
I have own two XV-1s. I disagree with some of the opinions above. I have owned many of the top of line phonostages available today and all of them were improved upon by setting the phono stage to its lowest gain setting and introducing the Bent Silver Mu in front. IMHO there is no better way to control a MC cartridge then with a step up transformer. Also phonostages with out step ups that offer different load settings have always, in my experience, been a bit of a joke. Its as if either, the mc cartridge does not recognize the change in load or the phonostage isnt executing the change of load properly. In fact I have never seen a mc cartridge respond to load changes with out a Step up, like they do with a Step up. Period.
For example a phonostage with the option to switch from say 1000, 500, 200, 100 ohms and there is very little difference between 1000 and 100! Its ridiculous. If you place a resistor in my Bent Audio Silver mu's using the Stevens and Billington T-103 trannys you will notice a significant difference in cartridge performance. If you change the load by 10 ohms you will receive a response from the moving coil.
This is a copy and paste from another gentleman who pretty much nails it on the head with regards to moving coils and step up transformers.
In spite of the huge amount of gain possible with modern MC phonostages,
typically 1000 to 1800+ times amplification, the MC cartridge is a poor
voltage source to drive these amplifiers. Furthermore the low resonance
frequency of a MC causes them to have a rising frequency response
beginning well below 20KHz which gives them, all else considered, a
sharp, spitty and unpleasant treble. This is in turn damped with a low
input impedance which creates an even further problem for the weakly
output MC cartridge.
A matching step-up transformer solves all these problems.
The transformer "transforms" the MC from a voltage source to a current
source, the transformer steps up the voltage relieving the MC from this
task. As a current source the transformer presents the MC with an
impedance at or near (ideally) the impedance of the MC which naturally
damps the rising top end without creating a electro-mechanical damper as
in the case of the low impedance input of the direct drive amp, i.e.
without the transformer.
And the voltage amplification of 5 to 20 times makes for a much quieter
operation and vastly better signal to noise ratio than is possible in
the "direct drive" configuration.
Lastly, again all else being the same, the phonostage will usually use
less feedback and generally sound better with a lower gain than higher
gain.
I must agree, in my experience there is nothing better and I havent read one argument to convince me otherwise and I have read them all. Most of all, my experience tells me otherwise.
One must realize that transformers can be a very transparent device. Now with nickel and amorphous cores, silver wound and so forth, trannys are becoming down right nasty. I have heard some transformer based passive pres that are lovely! I dont know if you ever experimented with amps. I tried many OTL amplifiers and none were as good as an amp with very good iron, like the vintage Acro TO 330, Tribute, Slagle, Tengo, Tamura, Electraprint, Audionote, lundahl, Sowter, magnequest, There is a lot of good transformer companies out there and all are striving for results beyond reproach. The Stevens and billington tx-103 transformer is, in my experience, is one of the most transparent devices in all of audio. By all means try a step up transformer with your XV-1s.
I have seen many people with lots of experience say, step up trannies are no good, this and that and that and this, and now they use step up trannies or own phonostages with them built in.
I recommend to you the Bent Audio Mu to use with what I hear is a wonderful phono in your Shindo. It is without a doubt the finest step up in my experience. This includes the copper version. I feel the cooper version is better than anything I have tried and I have tried many. Unbelievably, the silver version is a significant improvement over the copper.
I have own two XV-1s. I disagree with some of the opinions above. I have owned many of the top of line phonostages available today and all of them were improved upon by setting the phono stage to its lowest gain setting and introducing the Bent Silver Mu in front. IMHO there is no better way to control a MC cartridge then with a step up transformer. Also phonostages with out step ups that offer different load settings have always, in my experience, been a bit of a joke. Its as if either, the mc cartridge does not recognize the change in load or the phonostage isnt executing the change of load properly. In fact I have never seen a mc cartridge respond to load changes with out a Step up, like they do with a Step up. Period.
For example a phonostage with the option to switch from say 1000, 500, 200, 100 ohms and there is very little difference between 1000 and 100! Its ridiculous. If you place a resistor in my Bent Audio Silver mu's using the Stevens and Billington T-103 trannys you will notice a significant difference in cartridge performance. If you change the load by 10 ohms you will receive a response from the moving coil.
This is a copy and paste from another gentleman who pretty much nails it on the head with regards to moving coils and step up transformers.
In spite of the huge amount of gain possible with modern MC phonostages,
typically 1000 to 1800+ times amplification, the MC cartridge is a poor
voltage source to drive these amplifiers. Furthermore the low resonance
frequency of a MC causes them to have a rising frequency response
beginning well below 20KHz which gives them, all else considered, a
sharp, spitty and unpleasant treble. This is in turn damped with a low
input impedance which creates an even further problem for the weakly
output MC cartridge.
A matching step-up transformer solves all these problems.
The transformer "transforms" the MC from a voltage source to a current
source, the transformer steps up the voltage relieving the MC from this
task. As a current source the transformer presents the MC with an
impedance at or near (ideally) the impedance of the MC which naturally
damps the rising top end without creating a electro-mechanical damper as
in the case of the low impedance input of the direct drive amp, i.e.
without the transformer.
And the voltage amplification of 5 to 20 times makes for a much quieter
operation and vastly better signal to noise ratio than is possible in
the "direct drive" configuration.
Lastly, again all else being the same, the phonostage will usually use
less feedback and generally sound better with a lower gain than higher
gain.
I must agree, in my experience there is nothing better and I havent read one argument to convince me otherwise and I have read them all. Most of all, my experience tells me otherwise.
One must realize that transformers can be a very transparent device. Now with nickel and amorphous cores, silver wound and so forth, trannys are becoming down right nasty. I have heard some transformer based passive pres that are lovely! I dont know if you ever experimented with amps. I tried many OTL amplifiers and none were as good as an amp with very good iron, like the vintage Acro TO 330, Tribute, Slagle, Tengo, Tamura, Electraprint, Audionote, lundahl, Sowter, magnequest, There is a lot of good transformer companies out there and all are striving for results beyond reproach. The Stevens and billington tx-103 transformer is, in my experience, is one of the most transparent devices in all of audio. By all means try a step up transformer with your XV-1s.
I have seen many people with lots of experience say, step up trannies are no good, this and that and that and this, and now they use step up trannies or own phonostages with them built in.