Step Up Transformers….Are they Worth the Trouble?

@mijostyn

I prefer not to expend my energy or time on Raul posts. I already said my peace!

Back to matter on hand, I wholeheartedly agree with your point and preference for accuracy and neutrality in audio equipments. And cartridges and phono stages are not any different, ideally your entire signal chain should be as neutral as possible.

My rule of thumb, if a specific audio component cannot convey music with its natural emotions, then it failed in its purpose and gotta go.

Your list of recommended brands—Sutherland, Channel D, CH Precision, and Pass Labs—reflects your fine taste and commitment to high-quality, precise audio reproduction. I am not averse to trying a SS phono and I may eventually end up there. A tube phono been on my mind so this exercise will put rest my curiosity and give me a better understanding on what I liked or didn’t like vs a SS phono.

For me, next few months is going to be all about finding that perfect balanced sound with least bit of coloration. Musicality is a constant in my choice of audio gear and so far I have been very pleased with the results.

@lalitk I am way in on musicality, but it should rest with the music. 

@mijostyn 

Exactly! Musicality should be inherent in the music itself, rather than introduced or altered by our choice of gear. We may choose a different path but the end goal is to end up with a system that faithfully reproduces the original recording, allowing the music to speak for itself without any additional influence from the components. 

@mdalton 

Glad to hear hum is gone, It sounds like you're quite pleased with the improvements. Does lowering the ratio means sending the HM-7 back to Swissoner?

Dear @mijostyn : I owned that Shure V15 and other Shure models and I know very well ( by first hand experiences. ) Jico SAS developments and owned the normal SAS, the Boron and the Ruby/sapphire SAS.

I remember in those times that in other than the long MM thread we have a dialogue about ad the gentleman that posted the first time about the SAS Ruby was extremely disappointed by its quality performance against the SAS Boron and I was in agrenment with him Jco SAS Ruby was almost a trash. I return it to JICO and they accepted the cacelation in change of JICO SAS Boron for other cartridge.

You know very well Lyra designer and he never used ruby cantilevers in his cartridges but boron and boron with deposited diamond as in your Atlas Lambda SL.

There are very good reasons ( later in my next post ) why boron and diamond are true cartridge References, ruby is out of question.

R.

@lalitk 

nope.  have gotten instructions, and pretty easy to change. May wait until it’s burned in a bit before I experiment.