Does Everyone Use 2 Phono Cables with SUT

dover, mulveling

You both know more than I do. Understanding SUTs and MC Phono inputs or MC Phono Stages or MM/MC Combo units (individual selectable, one input and a switch somewhere) is one of the trickiest parts of moving into MC cartridge(s).

IF an advanced stylus is not properly calibrated and aligned, it’s advantages won’t be heard, and damage can occur.

Wrong x factor, wrong impedance, an advanced MC cartridge could be a little or a lot ’off’ of it’s designed potential superior sound reproduction.

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I don’t like letting machines beat me, nor taking advice on faith, so I dug in, researched, read, found charts, surveyed the heck out of makers sites and vintage variations on hifishark.

Most people, especially still working, don’t have the time or inclination, so they are at the mercy of .... That SUT is very expensive, has no adjustable parameters. OP may have already had it or been given it, in any case he is aware of the large impedance mismatch.

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I had a friend tell me his cartridge was MC low output. I checked it’s alignment on one of my arms, ... set tracking and anti-skate, and tried the same setting on my SUT as my MCLO, so we could compare them..

Not only too much volume, the entire frequency range was shifted. It had very nice range, imaging was there, but Annie Lenox; Sade, any voice was easily different. Weird. Everything was shifted in frequency together.

I spoke to the person who rebuilt it, it is MCHO high output, we should have been using the PASS (skips the sut’s transformer, just sends unaltered signal thru.

He brought the cartridge back, using PASS, everyone’s voices were ’right’. Now it’s full frequency, imaging, all there: it was hard to hear any differences between his and mine, after a while we both described what we heard from each similarly.

The mismatch was not x factor/not too much signal strength, my mx110z phono input can accept strong signals, the IMPEDANCE mismatch was what made is sound significantly different, significantly 'wrong'.

Ok, now I’m really curious. I’m going to borrow my friends Auditorium 23 “T2”

SUT. The T2 is made for cartridges  approx 6 Ohms and higher.

By the way, I have the DIN phono cable AND the T1 SUT both grounded to the phono preamp.

I will report my findings once I get the T2 hooked up.

@labpro 

Ok, now I’m really curious. I’m going to borrow my friends Auditorium 23 “T2”

Thats a great idea. It will give you an indication of whether the mismatch is having a significant affect or not.

By the way, I have the DIN phono cable AND the T1 SUT both grounded to the phono preamp.

Thats correct for the Homage.

For the SUT to phono stage, you don't need a dedicated phono cable with the additional earth wire.

You can run a single wire from the Homage earth socket to the phono stage separately. If you use the Auditorium23 cables thats how they wire it.

The main advantage of dedicated phono cables are

- they are designed for small signal and may have superior shielding

- usually have the additional earth wire

- ideally low capacitance ( which is desirable for your SUT to phono connection ).

If you run a separate earth wire from the homage earth socket to the phono stage all you need are well shielded, low capacitance cables, and short as possible.

Just keep in mind that "well shielded" and "low capacitance" are antithetical qualities, which I am certain Dover knows.  Some others might not.  Which is why I mentioned the AntiCables approach to shielding that does not add much capacitance.

Agree, the Bob's Devices are great cables on a budget!