Dynavector XV1-S and step-up

Hatari, You are hearing the opinions of two very knowledgable persons (Axel and Raul), who have their own private biases based on their own past experiences. There are lots of equally knowledgable vinyl fans who would disagree with Axel on loading with a SUT and with Raul who just does not like SUTs. I tend to agree with Raul, but you should form your own opinion, and one way to start is by listening to the preamp you already own.

Hi Cincy_bob
I accept your critique, I guess my words where less then what some lines had called:".... and the patience of a teacher" (What song was that again?)
You see in the recent past I'd spend A LOT of time with this issue in numerous threads - so yes, I was sounding a bit exasperated, please accept my apology.
A.

Lewm: thanks for the context. Just to clarify, I've been listening to my pre-amp for 2 years, so know it well. I just haven't explored SUTs (or external phonos, as the integrated phono is part of the attractiveness of the Shindo).

Will listen to a few SUTs and clearly form my own opinion. Having said that, I enjoy getting educated, and confused and appreciate the effort of all who post.

Cheers

Dear Hatari: Poor was not the right word. Let me explain in some other way:

you say that you are looking for an external SUT where I think will be a degradation ( even if the SUT is a " perfect " design. ) to the cartridge signal because that signal has to pass for additional stages: additional connectors and additional cables. IMHO these additional stages along the non-perfect SUT the only job that can do is to degrade that cartridge signal: it can't improve it in anyway, more signal process means more distortions/degradations.

In the other side your Masseto is full of transformers: internal SUTs for MC signal process and output transformers that in both cases put a distortion-signature to the cartridge signal.
I know that you like what you have but I think that you have a near " Ferrari " ( analog front end ) driving with " bycycle tires ", this is only an opinion where yours is the most important one.

Looking to your Masseto I think that you could do a little better with the MM alternative, at least an alternative easy to try and an inexpensive one.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Raul, I know you have a lot of experience with analog, but I'll have to disagree
with your posts on the Shindo. I know you have an existing aversion against
step-ups, but it would be wrong to judge the Shindo implementation without
first hearing it.

I have heard many solid state, tube+SUT, and hybrid (tube MM+SS MC)
phonostages over the past months and would say that the Shindo + SUT
certainly in the top of all the phono amps I heard. For example, my Pass
XOno does not reach the level of detail, extension, and natural tone that my
Shindo Monbrison + external SUT provides. The Shindo is at a completely
different level in terms of capturing fine nuances and detail in my experience.

It took a while though to find a step-up that works well with my Allaerts
MC1B and your opinion is certainly true for many of the step-ups I tried. I
have heard really bad tube + SUT phonostages (even at the $5k level, and I
heard equally bad solid state amps). There are excellent ones on both sides
though.

Of course, I am sure there are even better solid state phono stages than the
XOno but then there are even higher end Shindo preamps too. I certainly
haven't heard the level of detail with solid state that I heard with Shindo so
far.

Of course I have heard not nearly as many different cartridges and tables as
you have, but I have certainly heard good implementations and designs on
both sides, tube+SUT and solid-state.

With best regards,

Rene