SUT Advice - Which Ones Are The Best?

Our phonolinepreamp is an active high gain SS fully balanced/differential true dual mono input to output, inverse RIAA eq. with measured deviation of 0.015db both channels ( includes a switchable Neumann corner. ), class A amp, non-feedback, four layers circuit boards, all input/output connectors soldered directly to the circuit boards ( no single wire here. ), external dual mono power supply and a third for the logic card, bipolar devices for the dedicated MC stages and FET for the dedicated MM stages, matched and hand selected active/passive parts, very wide overload margin, true low noise, a stand alone logic card with its own power supply, etc, etc, etc.

Wow, all that when a carefully matched step up transformer will meet or exceed a very expensive active stage.

There are different ways to accomplish the goal of raising a less than milli-volt signal to the input level that a MM phono stage is happy with. Some prefer a SUT like me and some prefer active gain stages like you.

A quality SUT will do the job very well and need not cost a fortune. Companies like Denon (Engineering firm and cartridge designers) and Cinemag (Altec Peerless based designs) have been around a very long time and have a proven track record. Look carefully at the specs, what deficiency's  are causing all these distortions?

I'm sure a high end active gain stage can perform well if properly engineered and manufactured with quality components. But for the price of that I can buy several SUT and cartridges. I also prefer to have a simple audio path, one passive component verses dozens of active components.

BillWojo

Bob’s SUTs are great for the money.
My favorites :- Thrax Trajan 
                         Ypsilon    
                         Auditorium     
                         Audio Note UK
                         Kondo Audio Note.
 You asked for the best, there you go.
All of those work with my Lyra Atlas Lambda SL.

You can read Arthur Salvatore’s reviews here. He’s comparing many great SUTs, but find his thoughts on ZYX Headamp:

"This is, most likely, the finest head-amp I’ve ever heard. I state this because it is competitive with the finest transformers I’ve had, while all the many other (external) head-amps I’ve heard are simply not in that league. The ZYX head-amp is a solid-state device! It is highly unusual for a successful cartridge manufacturer to also design and build an audio component that is so different in fundamental nature (non-mechanical in this instance), with such excellent performance. The relevant details..." -  Arthur Salvatore

If you want to see what’s inside the ZYX CPP-1 look at the images in my system. Battery powered headamp with special resistors that looks like an MC cartridge coil (I was shocked to see that). Resistors made by ZYX to transfer the output signals with no noise and no inductance at all. They are made of pure coil wire of MC cartridges, cryogenic purified. I remember it was highly regarded by Arthur Salvatore who compared it to some of the best SUTs ever made.

A coil inevitably has inductance. However there are some tricks of winding that can minimize it, as in Mills resistors. Otherwise wirewound resistors are inductive. It’s the law.

Email Dave at Intact Audio, tell him about your preamp, cart, etc and he will wind SUT(s) to suit your needs. Not cheap (especially if you request silver wire) but custom wound to your cart/pre

Best,
-JP