Seperate phono stage v.s. step up transformer

Yeah, go with the TX103 from www.bentaudio.com. Buy the kit version and save. Best trannies on the market today. I use them with my Trumpet.

jh

I have gone through something quite similar recently with a built in phono stage in my nuvista and scoured all over for information. I got a large amount of input from people here and on aa. I believe everything people have said thus far is more than reasonable. The input I had was that bent audio make great stuff. For a simpleton like me I understand it that transformers will allow you to boost the signal and are a very economical way to go. If you don't care for the improvement they are generally easy to sell. I ultimately went with a separate stage and this has had an amazing improvement on the quality of musical reproduction. Since I struggled with this for some time drop me a note if you wish to hear the sordid details. Good luck

Don't forget the Lundahl xformer based step-up from
Kevin Carter of K&K Audio.
This is *also* available in kit form for just $225! Kevin is a really nice fellow & will assemble the kit for you for under $300 total (i.e. kit + labour).
The Lundahl xformers are amorphous core & their sound characteristic is much more natural than any other xformer core metal (such as permalloy or mu-metal).
This is a serious contender against the TX102.
My friend (who owns a SP-6A) has a pair of these installed inside the preamp chassis. Results are simply excellent.
IMHO.

I add my vote to the posts from 4yanx, Ed, Twl and Hagtech.

No cartridge that plays with a Helikon will have enough output to keep you from needing more gain. Changing cartridges won't help unless you settle for a performance downgrade, which would be crazy on such a nice rig.

See my recent post 'Shelter + BentAudio loading' for details on the BentAudio Mu trannies. John Chapman starts with Stephens & Billington TX103's, finishes them off nicely and adds two great performance features: infinitely variable loading and the fewest possible connections/joints in the signal path. It's a fine, well thought-out product.

The K&K's mentioned by Bombaywalla are well regarded and less costly, but I don't know if they do either of the two things I like about the BentAudio's so elegantly, or at all.

BTW, the specs on the Granite Audio 770 don't say how many dB's of gain the phono and line stages have. You'll need to know before choosing anyone's tranny.

The K&K Audio MC step-up based on Lundahl xformers does 1 of the 2 features of the Bent Audio step-up: fewest possible connections/joints in the signal path.

In fact, Lundahl xformers are one of the very few xformers that come WITHOUT flying leads. The Lundahl xformer comes with pin-outs (like an I.C.). The xformer is attched to the PC board & you solder to xformer pin. This makes a very secure connection as you do not have to worry about soldering your wire to the xformer flying leads.

Changing the cartridge load is more cumbersome (but more secure) as you have to un-solder & re-solder resistors. It has not been a problem for my 2 friends as one uses a Grado Sonata hence the load is 47K while the other one uses a Benz L2 with a 300 Ohms loading.

Having this one additional feature of cart. load changing for $700 (vs. K & K Audio's <$300) did not make any sense to me! Both xformers are imported - one from the UK & one from Sweden. One seems to be ridiculously expensive while the other is much more price worthy. I can practically guarantee that the TX102 is *not* 2X better despite its more than 2X cost!

From my personal experience, I ask the skeptics to give this step-up a listen. You will be very pleasantly surprised!