Raul and I are more often than not on opposite sides of controversies like this one. However, in this case, we are on the same page. On the other hand, I could well imagine that a tube phono stage with marginal gain when matched to a particular LOMC cartridge would sound better if a SUT is interposed between the two. That's no surprise to me, either. So, this could also be a case where both sides are "right", because no one has defined the terms of the argument. How low does the output of the cartridge have to be in relation to the gain of the phono stage before noise and reduced dynamics become obtrusive, whereupon things get better if you add a SUT? To some degree, that is a subjective judgement, unless we are talking about ridiculous mismatches. However, in my opinion, the particular example posed by the OP should not benefit much from adding a SUT.
I use a bipolar transistor input stage at the front end of an otherwise all-tube phono stage. Raul doesn't like this, because it uses mostly tubes, but the tremendous gain afforded by the transistor does result in an easy, dynamic, unstrained, and very low noise (not to say "no noise" that I can perceive) presentation that was not obtainable prior to introduction of the solid state input device. In fact, there is no LOMC that my preamp cannot handle with ease, up to and including an Ortofon MC2000 with an output of 0.05 mV. But again, this is my subjective opinion.
I use a bipolar transistor input stage at the front end of an otherwise all-tube phono stage. Raul doesn't like this, because it uses mostly tubes, but the tremendous gain afforded by the transistor does result in an easy, dynamic, unstrained, and very low noise (not to say "no noise" that I can perceive) presentation that was not obtainable prior to introduction of the solid state input device. In fact, there is no LOMC that my preamp cannot handle with ease, up to and including an Ortofon MC2000 with an output of 0.05 mV. But again, this is my subjective opinion.
