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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
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
After a brief listening session with my Ortofon MC-2000 i can say that iPhono2 with 72db gain is not the best choice for such a low output cartridge :(

In fact i have much better result with my Luxman 8030 Silver SUT (1:32 / 30db) from the 80s. The SUT is connected to my JLTi phono stage.  

More about Luxman SUT: 
http://www.thevintageknob.org/luxman-AD8000.html


jdodmead OP
257 posts
 
Raul,
I have no desire to spend another $1000-$1800 for a T-2000. That makes this cart really, really expensive.  I'll keep looking and maybe eventually something will come up at a more reasonable price, in the meantime I'll live with it the way it is, the cart sounds great, just bothersome when there's no music.
analogluvr
859 posts
 
In my experience once you get to cartridge out puts this low it's pretty much impossible not to use an SUT.    Maybe I just haven't tried the right active device. 
jdodmead OP
257 posts
 
Lesson learned :)
lewm
13,853 posts
 
Analogluvr,  No. You haven't tried the "right" phono stage.  It IS possible to run the MC2000 without a SUT.  However, I am not about to claim that my fully active phono stage is overall superior to any phono gain system using a SUT.  I will just say it's silent and handles the output of my MC2000 with ease and headroom to spare. (It's an Atma-sphere MP1 that I modified based on the design of the input stage in Allen Wright's RTP3C.) Everything downstream from the phono input gain stage is pretty much as Ralph designed it.
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