Elliot, that's a pretty cool looking SUT, but if the OP were to buy it and use it even at its lowest setting of 12db gain, he would then be feeding his amplifiers with about a 6V magnitude signal, enough almost to drive a very efficient speaker with no ampllifier.
Recommandation for 1:6 1:8 SUT under $5K?
I’m looking for some advice on a step-up transformer that pairs well with my Audio Research LS28SE, PH9, and Hana Umami Blue cartridge. I currently have both the Denon AU-S1 and AU-340. The AU-S1 sounds absolutely beautiful—very transparent and open—but at 1:13 the gain is too high, and I’m getting some clipping, especially on dynamic peaks. Even with the AU-340 at 1:10, I can still hear a bit of overload. I’ve tried playing with loading and parallel resistors, but the issue really comes down to gain. I think something in the 1:6 to 1:8 range would be perfect, enough to keep the clarity and tone I’m getting from the AU-S1 but with better headroom. My budget is around $5k, and I’m open to any recommendations for a high-quality SUT?
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- 68 posts total
lewm something seems off, his cartridge is 0.4mv; 8 ohm coil lowest is x factor of 4 (+12db). cartridge 0.4mv would get up to 1.6 mv, possibly a bit of loss, that’s still low 3rd option x factor 8 (+18db) .4mv should be 3.2mv, should be no problem going into a typical MM Phono stage. OP says x factor 10 and 13 are too much, he detects overload. My AT440 MM cartridge has 5mv output, it never overloaded anything I plugged it into. happily, the impedance is a separate face mounted control on that unit.
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found another option that seems like it might be a good choice https://sutherlandengineering.com/sutz-2/ Stereophile review, similar cartridge type
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also in the Stereophile Review, this cost a lot less https://www.loungeaudio.com/copla continuous Adjustable Gain: 9 to 27dB Continuous Adjustable Input impedance: 300 to 40 ohms Output impedance: 1.5 ohms One rotary knob, gain goes up/impedance goes opposite direction, reduces
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Elliot, the OP already owns and uses a phono stage (PH9) that develops 58db of phono gain. He also owns an AR linestage L28SE that develops an additional 12.5db of gain. If he feeds those components with the output of that SUT set at +12db, those 1.6mV become ~5.3V, enough to overload many amplifiers and way more than needed to drive nearly any conventional amplifier to full output. (Most require 1V or less. A few require 1-2V.) Even without any SUT, the linestage will put out ~1.3V, if the phono stage is fed with the pure unadulterated 0.4V output of his cartridge, again more than enough most likely. I thought this was a settled issue. He reports overload with a 1:10 SUT already. You seem to want him to buy both a SUT and a new phono stage. That’s up to him. He has not reported back on whether he has tried the no SUT approach. |
- 68 posts total