Whats on your turntable tonight?

Hey E, I'm shortly expecting my new -- and first ever -- SUT, which will have 9X and 16X ratios. I've got a 2 week audition period, and it will be interesting to compare it against resistive loading. I do know that my phonostage sounds best at its low (MM) gain setting, so we'll see...

Z, the big question is what is the load that your MC cartridge requires. What kind of trannys are in it?
btw these things require a very long break in. The tiny voltage can take a year to get settled in.
I just built a new SUT tonight using Shure microphone trannies and so far they rock! The seller said that they had a 300 ohm secondary which is a little higher than my Beher trannys. But the big thing is that they are quieter.
Do you have a tube preamp with phono section? If so, I will bet that the MC setting uses Jfets. I would rather have a tube sounding phono by using a SUT with a tube MM section.

Edgard Varese "Offrandes/Integrales/Octandre/Ecuatorial"
Nonesuch
this is a weird (avante garde)piece that has very interesting and almost explosive sound.

Dire Straits "Dire Straits"

Al Stewart "Year of the Cat"

List "Les Preludes"

Jennifer Warnes "Famous Blue Raincoat"

Christy Moore "Voyage"

Toto IV - wonderful harmonies on "I Won't Hold You Back".

Right now,Steely Dan "The Royal Scam" is sounding pretty damn good.

Hey E, loading is the main reason I'm trying an SUT. My phonostage offers plenty of MC gain on its own, however my current cart doesn't seem to get along well with the resistive loading it provides in terms of tonal balance, at any of the available values (including the one recommended by the cart manufacturer). The SUT seems to be an improvement in this regard, even when the nominal impedance product is essentially the same, however there may be losses in other areas. It's been a while since I had any tubes in my amplification chain. (Several years ago there was nothing but, however the phono was the first to go -- too susceptible to annoying and frustrating tube noise issues, no matter what varieties or how many different examples I tried. Maybe an SUT would have helped then.) As far as break-in goes, this manufacturer feels a mere few hours is sufficient for these particular trannies, but I'll give it more than that, as much as I can in the audition period I have.

Ahmad Jamal - "Chamber Music Of The New Jazz" [Argo LP '56]
Illinois Jacquet - "Swing's The Thing" [Verve LP '57]
Johnny Hodges - "The Blues" [Verve LP '57]
Dizzy Gillespie - "Have Trumpet Will Excite" [Verve LP '59]
Junior Mance - "Straight Ahead!" [Capitol LP '64]
The Four Freshman - "...And Five Guitars" [Capitol LP '59]
The Fireballs - "Gunshot!" [Sundazed comp. LP '96]
The Pretty Things - "Singles '64-'68" [Sundazed comp. 2LP '08]