Seperate phono stage v.s. step up transformer

Don't forget the Lundahl xformer based step-up from
Kevin Carter of K&K Audio.
This is *also* available in kit form for just $225! Kevin is a really nice fellow & will assemble the kit for you for under $300 total (i.e. kit + labour).
The Lundahl xformers are amorphous core & their sound characteristic is much more natural than any other xformer core metal (such as permalloy or mu-metal).
This is a serious contender against the TX102.
My friend (who owns a SP-6A) has a pair of these installed inside the preamp chassis. Results are simply excellent.
IMHO.

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!