which is better ? MC phono stage or MM+step-up ?

It is not the jfet. The Doshi Alaap uses a jfet mc gain stage most beautifully. Like others have said, the designer's experience and ability has a lot to do with it. I believe Nick has shown that a jfet solution can work extremely well. I'm sure there are others who can make it work also.

Dear Nandric, sorry, I missed your question in late november.
Yes, if you want to avoid having to mess (if you strive for the best possibly, you've got to try (i.e.: mess around with...) with SUTs, the safe side is to go for MOMC (medium output moving coil) with 0.5 mV or more.

In general - if perfectly grounded and perfectly shielded (both is easier than widely expected) SUT can be hum free. Take care of the transformers shielding - outer and inner... - and the way it connects to the signal ground and whether the tonearm/armboard/plinth is grounded too.
I still see LOMC with low source impedance and corresponding inductance as one part of an essential team with a matching (impedance/inductance relative to step-up ratio) SUT.
Cheers,
D.

Dan I am sure that there are excellent jfet phono sections, but if you had a tube preamp and wanted tube pre/phono sound,than it might not be what some would want.A SUT allows for working with either.

cheers

e

The Alaap IS a tubed phono and pre, with a jfet MC stage.

I had my phono stage heavily modded by Bill Thalmann. We decided to go with an EAR MC-4 SUT for the MC gain, so the phono stage is run in MM mode (all tube), bypassing the JFET in the MC portion of the signal path.

The result of SUT + tubes is a much more musical presentation with a lower noise floor. Bill reminded me that CJ's top phono stage has a SUT built-in, so it runs SUT + tubes in the signal path.

For the dollar invested, a "quiet" tube sound with lots of quality and flexibility.