FIDELITY RESEARCH STEP-UP TRANSFORMERS

I have an XG-5 in my second system, also the universal type with 3 positions and one 'step down' from XG-7. It sounds really nice, but not on the same level as my other two dedicated step ups, Entré ET-200 (copper wire) and Ortofon T-3000 (silver wire), both for MC's in the 2 to 6 ohm range and both with 30dB gain.

If you plan on using FR7 or other low impedance cartridges, a dedicated low impedance type is preferable. I have no experience with XF-1L, so don't know how it compares to the ones mentioned above. There also was a silver wire step up from FR. This is quite rare, sought after and expensive. I saw it offered twice in the last 5 years and sold instantly, so it must be very good.

BTW: I would advise against using a low impedance step up with Benz LP-S.

Dear @lohanimal : Ste up transformers are not " rocket science " and does not changed in the last 40+ years. What changed was if are silver coiled or cooper or what ever but the functions stays the same.

I owned FR, AT, Denon, Entré and several other SUT's and with out doubt I can recomend to you the Denon AU-340 that I still own along the Denon AU-1000 ( both modified by me. ).

You can't go wrong with the 340 that works really good with any vintage or today cartridges:

https://audio-heritage.jp/DENON/etc/au-340.html

https://www.vinylengine.com/library/denon/au-340.shtml

Please take a look to the Denon frequency range against the top FR or any FR SUT, Denon outperforms any of them and this spec tell us a lot about the quality of those transformer designed by Denon.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

Dear all
Can i first of all say thank you for your responses - very informative so far.
As it happens i have 2 phono stages. A Vendetta SCP2B which I intend to use with a Transfiguration Temper V directly - I wish it had more inputs - hey ho.
My other stage is Whest 0.20 which can take MC or MM - with the Step Up i will put it onto MM.

I was curious as to what mods you carried out @rauliruegas to the denon.

I would ideally like at least 2 inputs for the step up. That is partly why i like the FR range. 

I was not familiar with the XG range - i note that there are no 7's for sale

Dear @lohanimal  : "   I hope to get an FR7 cartridge... "

IMHO the qworst decision you can take speaking on cartridges because all the disadvantages that has cartridges with integrated headshells and especially the vintage ones you name it:

first than all the with the 7's you can't set up correctly any cartridge due that you can't have azimuth mechanism to do it and can't change the overhang and offset angle to take advantage of one of the Löfgren tonearm/cartridge kind of alignments.
In the other side the internal cartridge/headshell wires/connectors that are so important because is where the cartridge signalmust pass through are just that: vintage and with low quality.

At least AT cartridge integrated models as Technics headshell integrated ones came with azymuth and overhang adjustments not like the monolitic 7 type.

Of course is up to you because is your money and you decide what to do with.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

@rauliruegas 
I hear what you say, but on the other hand many say the FR7f including the likes of @jcarr have commended it's unique design. Frankly - life's too short to not try one out. It's part of the reason that I am going to have a couple of multi-arm turntables.

That said how did you modify the Denon SUT? out of interest was it more transparent the other SUT's you used?