Hello!
I live in Athens, Greece.
I have been involved into Hi Fidelity audio reproduction since 23 years ago. It was back in 2002 when I decided to set up a thoroughly new system. At the same time I started studying again electromagnetism in order to refresh my knowledge acquired through my studies as mechanical engineer.
During the last 10 years I have been member of local audiophile clubs and have attended numerous listening sessions at friends' homes mainly. I do not know how many vinyl cartridges I have listened to but it is more than likely to be more than 50!
I am also a professional coil winder and manufacturer of extreme hi fi components. More specifically I'm winding whatever you might think of and of course I'm manufacturing MC step up transformers at ratios 7.5x up to 80x with exactly same frequency response.
As you might well think, I can wind any SUT transfofmer for any MC cartridge that exists. I had wound a 40x SUT and it was already playing at a friend's system, it was driven by a Lyra Parnassus. This cartridge was hands down the best I had ever auditioned. There was also available a Benz Micro TR without the ebony wooden case. It was naked with 1 ohm internal impedance and 0.1mV output. We plugged the Benz TR and I could not sayb that it was better in all aspects, equally good sound but not clearly better.
It then came into my mind the idea to wind a special pair of transformers, dedicated only to Benz TR, with a step up ratio of 80x! That would be the greatest challenge, as nobody in the world designs and manufactures SUTs at such 'extreme' ratios. Under these insane ratios, you must be very careful to the DC resistance of the tonearm wire, as the losses rise by the square of turns ratio.
The pair of SUTs was ready and moved to my friend's house for the first audition with the Benz TR cartridge. It took only one turn of the vinyl for us to be so thrilled like never before. I never remember myself sitting in front of a susyem speechless and completely amazed to that degree!
After my thorough experience in cartridges and SUTs matching, manufacturing etc, all I can say is that
Benz Micro TR cartridge (specially the naked version with gyger diamond but all of them are not that different) combined with a 80x SUT is the best combination I have ever experienced in my life, something that lies into its own world, it is a combination that thrills your mind and captivates your sould like nothing I have ever experienced!
