Step Up Transformers….Are they Worth the Trouble?

“if copper cost over $1000 / oz, it would be the most desired audiophile wire metal BY FAR….We take for granted that it’s so good, and affordable.”

@mulveling

Agreed. I believe lot of our choices are driven by our personal preferences, budget and system constraints. When it comes to audio, there are so many ways to skin the cat.

Speaking of SUT’s, there is a brand from France called Sculpture. They are appear to be well built and reasonably priced. Don’t get much press in US but they are quite popular across the pond. I plan to try one once the dust settles on my choice of cart and phono.

@lalitk 

dealer I worked with on Swissonor - Constantin at Atelier 13 - carries Sculpture as well.

@mulveling : I certainly respect your knowledge and your ears, and those of Kevin Hayes, too, having been a VAC man myself for a long time. But I have to disagree about the LL1931Ag. I recently picked up a last-gen K&K Maxxed Out with the silver Lundahls. I love ’em, finding them deeper, more resolving, and more "lit from within," to use a hackneyed audiophile trope, than the copper version, which I’ve had for years in a K&K Premium SUT. Just goes to show, to each their ears!

@mulveling : I certainly respect your knowledge and your ears, and those of Kevin Hayes, too, having been a VAC man myself for a long time. But I have to disagree about the LL1931Ag. I recently picked up a last-gen K&K Maxxed Out with the silver Lundahls. I love ’em, finding them deeper, more resolving, and more "lit from within," to use a hackneyed audiophile trope, than the copper version, which I’ve had for years in a K&K Premium SUT. Just goes to show, to each their ears!

@wrm57 that's fair! Agree the LL1931Ag does indeed dig deeper; just wasn't the right tonal balance in my system for my ears. 

@mulveling   : " just wasn't the right tonal balance in my system for my ears.  "

Normally subjectivity is the personal characteristic that dominates the audio world against objectivity because normally too silver win over cooper but I can attest my self experiences like that yours only between different  SUT manufacturers where the cooper Denon Murata outperforms several silver wired SUTs as the Audio Note and made it easily....

Now in your case is in the same model where I imagine that  both SUTs shares the same design and this gives you the opportunity to think and make a system deep search trying to find out why what in " paper " should be better it's not through your first hand experiences other that the silver one was not inside specs for whateever reasons. At least is what I do in cases as this one. Everyday is a day to learn or confirm what we already know.

R.