FIDELITY RESEARCH STEP-UP TRANSFORMERS


Dear All
Like many before me I am moving down the multi tonearm route. Amongst the arms and cartridges I have are a Fidelity Research FR 64S and denon DL103. I was thinking about trying out one of the Fidelity research step-up transformers - preferably an FRT 4, or FRT 5 - I hope to get an FR7 cartridge at some point.

I was wondering if someone could:
1. shed light on the hierarchy of the transformers ie was the 4 or 5 the better model
2. would they work well plugged into any MM phono stage
3. what is the general hierarchy of the step-ups
4. Do they work well with modern cartridges - ie my shelter 501, transfiguration temper v, Benz LPS

I am hoping that someone will be able to help me

thanks



lohanimal
Dear @lohanimal : Ste up transformers are not " rocket science " and does not changed in the last 40+ years. What changed was if are silver coiled or cooper or what ever but the functions stays the same.

I owned FR, AT, Denon, Entré and several other SUT's and with out doubt I can recomend to you the Denon AU-340 that I still own along the Denon AU-1000 ( both modified by me. ).

You can't go wrong with the 340 that works really good with any vintage or today cartridges:

https://audio-heritage.jp/DENON/etc/au-340.html

https://www.vinylengine.com/library/denon/au-340.shtml

Please take a look to the Denon frequency range against the top FR or any FR SUT, Denon outperforms any of them and this spec tell us a lot about the quality of those transformer designed by Denon.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
Dear all
Can i first of all say thank you for your responses - very informative so far.
As it happens i have 2 phono stages. A Vendetta SCP2B which I intend to use with a Transfiguration Temper V directly - I wish it had more inputs - hey ho.
My other stage is Whest 0.20 which can take MC or MM - with the Step Up i will put it onto MM.

I was curious as to what mods you carried out @rauliruegas to the denon.

I would ideally like at least 2 inputs for the step up. That is partly why i like the FR range. 

I was not familiar with the XG range - i note that there are no 7's for sale


Dear @lohanimal  : "   I hope to get an FR7 cartridge... "

IMHO the qworst decision you can take speaking on cartridges because all the disadvantages that has cartridges with integrated headshells and especially the vintage ones you name it:

first than all the with the 7's you can't set up correctly any cartridge due that you can't have azimuth mechanism to do it and can't change the overhang and offset angle to take advantage of one of the Löfgren tonearm/cartridge kind of alignments.
In the other side the internal cartridge/headshell wires/connectors that are so important because is where the cartridge signalmust pass through are just that: vintage and with low quality.

At least AT cartridge integrated models as Technics headshell integrated ones came with azymuth and overhang adjustments not like the monolitic 7 type.

Of course is up to you because is your money and you decide what to do with.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
@rauliruegas 
I hear what you say, but on the other hand many say the FR7f including the likes of @jcarr have commended it's unique design. Frankly - life's too short to not try one out. It's part of the reason that I am going to have a couple of multi-arm turntables.

That said how did you modify the Denon SUT? out of interest was it more transparent the other SUT's you used?

@lohanimal don’t get too hung up about the supposed problems with FR7 as presented - ad nauseam - by rauliruegas. He’s the ’odd one out’ around here concerning these cartridges.

Most forum members familiar with them love the way they make music. And when you use them together with the FR64/66 tonearms and observe Ikeda’s specified P2S distance, you get none of the alignment or set up problems.

You don’t have to take my or anybody’s word for it. You can buy the FR7 series without much risk. If you don’t like what they do, you will have no problem reselling them at no loss. As you say, life’s too short not to try.....