step up transformer for clearaudio

Csr827,

A friend of mine has a Tron phonostage. The design does not afford the user any options on loading, gain, or anything else and the designer insists that the tubes provided are the "best" for that particular design.

While I thought that the phonostage was okay for the money, it performed MUCH better with different tubes in it. I am sure the right combination is really system/personal preference dependent, but, don't take the designer's word for what is best. Do some experimentation on your own. In this particular system, the Amperex bugle boy 12AX7s (I believe) sounded the best.

We did not do any experiments with loading, but I suppose you could do that also. I have a phonostage with a SUT built in, and I optimized its performance by changing the loading of the primary of the transformer. If you don't know how to do this, I am sure you can find someone who can help.

I personally like the sound of preamps with SUTs, but, matching to particular cartridges is an added complication that can make things a hit or miss affair. Perhaps more work, but the result can be very rewarding.

I am quite a supporter for SUT, but only for LOMC.
A SUT suits the chain the better the lower the output of the MC and its source impedance (and the resulting source inductance).
You may try a 1:4 step up with 8 to 12dB gain.
This might work well and tell you a few things about your MC. But the question is - as Axel pointed out - whether your phono stage can handle the input.
Always keep in mind, that the SUT and the cartridge are a team. You need to match the right "teammates" - otherwise the "best" SUT will sound terrible with the "best" MC if their technical parameters aren't matching.

Dertonarm,

I agree that a SUT is a good approach to dealing with low output moving coils. Such cartridges need an additional stage of amplification and any form of active amplification adds noise whereas an SUT does not add noise.

How would i know the overload spec of my clearaudio phono stage? All i know is that it has a 58db gain and input impedance of 5oo ohms/270 pf . Max output is 12v(1hz). Please help if you know the computations to my phono stage overload spec. . Also if im overloading it, will it be obvious immediately or will i hear the distortions with repeated use of the step up? Thanks

Csr827,
+++ How would i know the overload spec of my clearaudio phono stage?+++

By looking up the spec. sheet, or if not in the spec. sheet asking the man that makes the stuff, no?

Greetings,
Axel