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Do I need a sut?

I purchased an Ortofon MC2000 cart from a fellow A'Goner, it is very low output .05mV, my phono pre is a Herron VTPH-2 which has 69db of gain and my pre is a Herron VTSP-3a(r02) 14db gain.
The cart sounds wonderful, but with such a low gain I have to turn up the volume by quite a lot. If I had, another source at that volume, I wouldn't be able to stand it. With the volume turned up so high I get a fair amount of noise between tracks. 
Should I be looking at an sut or just live with it the way it is? I found an Ortofon at a decent price, it has 24db of gain. Would that be ok to go into the mc input on the VTPH-2? The mm gain is 48db, if I plugged it in there I would only gain 3db(if I'm doing my math correctly) I will also be contacting Keith, but I thought I would ask here too.
Thanks
Jeff
jdodmead
jdodmead OP
257 posts
 
Raul,
I did purchase the FR, but now I'm trying to see if I can back out of that purchase(if it hasn't shipped yet). I did previously send you a couple e-mails requesting your advice, but maybe you didn't receive them, that's why I posted here.
Thanks
Jeff
analogluvr
859 posts
 
 I don't know that SUT in particular but fidelity research is known for making very fine stuff.   And as somebody else mentioned it is very saleable should you not like it. And the reason why it is very saleable is because it is very good. 
Ag insider logo xs@2x
rauliruegas
13,052 posts
 
Dear @jdodmead : Sorry to hear about those emails and you are not the first gentleman to tell me about. Sometimes my mail takes its own decissions ( always. ) and puts some mails in the non-desirable ones carpet that I never check out or I received ok. and did not answer what is not my usual attitude but could been my fault. Apologizes.

Again, try to have the best advise from the Herron designer it self and if he can't do anything additional of what you have then stay where you are till you have the money for the rigth SUT or a new phonolinepreamp.

I know very well that cartridge quality level performance and I know that even with high noise levels the quality performance is really fine and no one wants to perceive degradation on that well know high performance quality levels.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
analogluvr
859 posts
 
 Hi Jeff,Don't sweat it, just get the sUTand try it. As long as you didn't overpay you should be able to get it out of it unscathed if you want to.  Raul just hates SUTs in general and Tubes as well so I wouldn't give him too much credibility.   He may be right about the frequency response not going out to 100 kHz but that's not important anyways. As long as it doesn't have a sharp cut off at 25 kHz like digital it's not gonna show any anomalies in the audible range. Specs only tell half the story but he seems fixated on them. Another thing to consider is back in those days manufacturers were honest about the specs whereas these days it seems numbers are just chosen out of thin air sometimes.
analogluvr
859 posts
 
 Also the Herron has two configurations as far as gain goes. You just have to switch the Tubes from 12at7 to 12 a X7 to make it the higher gain version. I'm not sure which configuration you have. 
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