Of Moving Magnets - Step ups - and phono stages

don't know if this will help at all, and i know very little about these Moving Coil Cartridges
BUT i have a Vintage PS Audio MC Amplifier. i got it along with a couple other PS Audio units on an eBay auction a couple years back.

the early PS Audio gear is really sweet, i have some 70s and 80 units in my primary and secondary systems. the technology is simple and the sound is surprisingly clean and straight up. i am not familiar with today's high end equipment but would willingly match this vintage gear with anything out there. i have tried to initiate a new thread here in the analog section but am awaiting moderator approval, which does not seem to be forthcoming. i have no idea what this MC Amp might be worth but would like to see it go to a new home where it can be of benefit to somebody. from perusing your thread and responses, this might be right up your alley.

there is no data in the A-gon BlueBook to indicate its value but i'd be happy to describe it further to you if you wish, and even to send you some pix. from what i gathered here, it seems you would be looking to add a *link* in the chain either way, so it feels like this could be of interest to you...

if you wish to contact me directly, look me up in the member look-up section. perhaps somebody watching this will chime in with some input on this comment?

It's too bad there aren't any hifi stores with demo rooms anymore, at least not in my vicinity. Back in the day, you got to listen before you purchased.

Heyraz, the Ortofon Kontrapunkt B is a low output moving coil cartridge, designed to work into a load impedance of 50 to 200 ohms, according to the listing for it at vinylengine.com. So a suitably chosen SUT would work fine with it.

Your Grado low output moving iron cartridge, on the other hand, wants to see a load impedance of 47K, so the low impedance that would be seen looking into the primary of a SUT would not be a proper load for it. The same would hold true for most low output moving magnet cartridges.

The Rega Exact is a moving magnet cartridge with a very high output (7.2mv according to the vinylengine.com listing). Therefore a SUT is obviously both unnecessary and unsuitable for use with it.

Best regards,
-- Al

I wondered if I could do that. Look for my previous thread "Can I use a Step Up Transformer with low output MM?" Here are parts of the thread:

"The problem is that you can't do that. While a transformer transforms voltage in proportion to its turns ratio, it also tranforms impedance, in proportion to the square of the turns ratio. So a 10x voltage step-up would result in the cartridge seeing a load of 470 ohms, assuming the phono stage input is 47K."
Which begat:
"Hey Al, if the turns ratio was 10:1, and it probably does not need to be that high to get the needed extra kick, then you could replace the 47K resistor on the secondary side of the SUT with a 4.7M one. Thus the cartridge would see 47K reflected across the SUT. But I do think their may be a problem based on the much higher inductance of the average MM/MI, vs an MC, and its interaction with the inductance of the SUT. You would know more about that than I."
And then...
"No, that wouldn't work, because the input impedance of the phono stage, presumably 47K, would be in parallel with the 4.7M resistor, resulting in an overall impedance on the secondary side of very slightly less than 47K. Two impedances in parallel result in a combined impedance equal to their product divided by their sum."

I got the impression it wouldn't sound right.

Heyraz, you use an SUT in front of an MM phono stage to bring an MC low output cart up to MM level.

Can't use a SUP with a MM. I asked that one a couple of weeks ago and got some pretty technical reasons why not.
Look for "Can I use a step up transformer with low output MM"
in this analog forum

For a real performance improvement over the BH you'll have to move way up the food chain. For $2K used you would have some good choices but an sut for far less will make your seduction sing. Bobs devices are reasonable as are K&K. After trying many (including the exalted S&B and audio note) I settled on Silk and put them in double shielded cases I made myself. You can get them in nice Silk cases as well. If you get a nice sut you like you can use it with any MM pre you may end up with. Spend the rest on records or cartridge upgrade. Youll find many opinions here on MM carts, I have both MM and MC and wouldnt want to be limited to either. For MM I have a Virtuoso which was a great match with my Seduction.