Step Up Transformer Question


Ok, so bear with me as this is new terrain for me. I was quite happy with how things were sounding and then I accidentally bumped the stylus of my Cadenza Black and snapped the cantilever clean off. I did some research and ultimately decided to have Steve at VAS at fix my cartridge but it was going to take a few weeks and there was going to be no way to play the Christmas vinyl that my wife loves so much. She told me to buy another cartridge so we could have Christmas records. I was stunned. I found a great deal on a Winfeld Ti on this site and pulled the trigger. I've got it on my table and it sounds amazing. 

After speaking with Steve though, I'm going to trade in my Cadenza and have him build me a wood body cartridge to have something different. It will also be 0.2mv output. I think I've got the 2nd arm situation sorted (gonna buy a Wand and a pod to mount it on) which leaves the phono pre. I love my Rogers PA-2 and it is switchable between MC and MM with 2 different inputs in the back. Finally got the SUT part. I've been looking and trying to figure things out. I spoke with Roger and he said the transformer built into the PA-2 is 1:10 and with that I can achieve 70 or so dB of gain. I did a lot of reading and looking and while I'm sure a 4k+ SUT is amazing that's just not where I'm at with all the other expenses at the moment. I saw the Bellari MT502 was a stereophole recommended component for many years and Amazon had one on sale for like $349 or something. Figured can't hurt to try it, it's Amazon so I can always return it. I plugged it in with some admittedly questionable interconnects I had lying around and when I put the phono stage k there was a bit more hum than I'm used to but I said let's have a listen. Holy shit. This little thing blew my mind. Better impact, tighter bass, more space around instruments so better staging, improved transients. This puts me in an interesting place. 

This is an extremely inexpensive piece and it has changed my system quite a bit. I think the little extra gain I get even at 1:12 brings the cartridge to life. My question is where do I go from here? Bob's makes the sky 30 which is switchable from 1:15 to 1:30 which I like because I can play with the gain tubes in my preamp and potentially go to a quieter 12au7 than the 12ax7 that's currently in there. Will that be a real improvement? Less hum? Had also considered ordering a Rothwell from jolly old England but can't find much on them. Thoughts? I'd like to keep this sub 1k or so for now. Maybe I'll save up for a big boy SUT later. 

rmdmoore

My Phono system already sounded great, with ’regular’ phono cables.

When I bought my long tonearm, the Russian maker almost insisted I use this Ortofon

 

That TT, I had been using a basic cable from Amazon while waiting.

I heard ZERO difference, I used two ’upscale’ din cables that came with my other two tonearms. Plugged

Audioquest Fire w DBS to keep the dialectric formed…more important on the tonearm cable…. in my opinion But any AQ interconnects w DBS used should be on your list.

OP your wife is a saint…. just saying…..

when selecting said, choose one with a ending result of YES on the turns ratio…..

Don't get too caught up on loading.   I don't unless there is a huge mismatch.

MC carts don't generally react to capacitance so I don't worry about that either.

I use DH Labs Pro Studio cable hard wired on my VPI terminated with AECO RCAs on the other side.

Thinking about going to solid silver.

@tomic601 you are correct sir. My wife is an absolute saint. She mostlybsupoorts my hobby and doesn't ask too many questions. She even used the turntable sometimes!

@elliottbnewcombjr was that TT set up with a SUT? I'm definitely getting more hum with the SUT and I'm attributing some of that to one of the cables in usong being crappy and picking up a lot of hum. Could be placement of the SUT but when I picked it up and moved it around it didnt seem to change much.