Phono Stage

Wouldn't it be fun to have a get together some where with everyone bringing a cartridge or two to have a listen and compare?  I would like to know how my AT AR20 compares to the Blue.  For that matter either my 2M LVB or my AT LMN60xSL would be interesting too just for fun to have a MM comparison.  A turntable with an interchangeable head shell would facilitate matters.  My SL1200GAE has that, so does the Luxman.  When I was in the business years ago it was easy to set things like this up.  Now it is next to impossible.  

I am a Musical Fidelity fan and you may want to look at the M6x Vinyl or the M8x Vinyl.  https://www.hifinews.com/content/musical-fidelity-m8x-vinyl-mmmc-phono-preamplifier

@davehg I am totally in your SUT camp. I run my Unami Blue into a Ned Clayton Cinemag 1254 and then into my Icon PS2, which is a simple straight forward three  tube, passive RIAA, no feedback, PTP wiring, MM phono pre. It is small and compact and offers 46dB to 50dB of gain, depending on which you believe, the manual or the published specs. I much prefer SUTs. And they don't need to cost a fortune. Adjusting loading is a simple matter of calculating the correct value of resistor and placing it across the secondary in parallel with the 47KΩ of the MM stage. Of course, one must be aware of reflective impedance limitations at the primary that the cartridge will see. For example: A 1:10  winding ratio SUT (which produces 20dB of gain) into a 47KΩ load will result in a  maximum reflected impedance of 470Ωs.at the primary. You can easily lower that value but you can never exceed it.  A 1:20 ratio has a maximum reflective impedance of 117.5Ωs at the primary. Of course the Hana Cartridges will do fine at these values and they can be easily adjusted downward. In fact most cartridge designs will be fine. Including SoundSmith's moving iron design that requires a minimum of 470Ω loading. But if you require a higher loading value for your cartridge than 470Ω,  then you have no choice but to use an active head amp, or to reduce the winding ratio and thus the gain. It is governed by the calculation: (Secondary Impedance) divided by the square of the (winding ratio). In a 1:10 case. 47KΩ/100 = 470Ω. But I love the clean path of the signal from the cartridge directly to the MM pre with no active components in between. Ned Clayton's Cinemag 1254 SUT sounds open, uncluttered, and musical, at a ridiculously reasonable price. I avoid active MC head amps whenever possible.  

@flash56 I have a phono stage en route that features lundhal SUTs for MC gain. It’s a completely different design than my current Whest Two.2 that achieves gain with op-amps if I’m not mistaken. I wouldn’t write off every single phono stage in favor of SUTs for LOMC cartridges. I can tell you that whatever you got it will face an uphill battle with something like the Whest, within same price category. 

@audphile1 I own a couple of Lundahl SUTs. I find that I prefer the Cinemag's sound as far as my system goes. However, the Lundahls are good SUTs. I am sure that you are correct about active MC gain. I happen to own an old Sonic Frontiers SFP-1 that uses a JFET as the MC gain stage. I obviously am a tube man. It is a similar design to the Manley Chinook without the built in loading resistors. It just has soldering posts. Which is fine for me. I would rather tweak in the loading myself than have preset choices. With that said. It is good warm sounding tube pre that uses a JFET MC gain stage. I used it for years into a SS integrated and it sounded great.  So maybe I was a bit too harsh in my statement. Your point is well taken. I have nothing against SS. And I am sure that many SS preamps would integrate well into my system. It is just that I am finally at a place where I can explore a totally tube driven signal chain. And I am finding it an enjoyable experience. I must admit that I like the fact that my current setup does not have one semiconductor in the signal chain when playing vinyl. However, I also must admit that both the phono pre and the integrated use bridge rectifiers rather than tube rectifiers. That really doesn't count as being a part of the signal chain, but it would be nice if they were also tube rectified. I wish that I had other audiophile friends so that we could compare different components. I would like very much to hear your Whest. Unfortunately, everyone that I know thinks that I am obsessed and suffer from OCD when it comes to audio. And they couldn't care less about high quality sound. They tell me that I am crazy for spending the amount of money that I do on a stupid stereo. They say this with a straight face, as they drive up in their brand new $60,000 vehicle, When they have a perfectly fine vehicle sitting in their garage not being driven. But I guess that in their mind that is different and somehow more legitimate.