Step Up Transformers….Are they Worth the Trouble?

Dar @maxson  : Good that you are hapy with the Piccolo current design.

As @lewm  posted exist several phono stages designed that way and I already posted that that kind of design is an old phono stage kind of design from the 80's when I owned one. In those time never had success.

In the last ( more or less ) 10 years that old kind of phono stage design is the fashion, mainly for each one of us knowledge levels in that specific regards ( including mijos. ).

Here what and Agoner posted:

"  I was recently reading a Unami test report and the reviewer used the unami with a CH Precision P1 using both the voltage and current imputs. He indicated the unami sound better with the voltage input vs current. He stated from experience low internal resistance alone less than 10 ohms doesn't guaranty good sound with a current input phono stange and listed a few very expensive cartridges with resistances in the 2ohm range that sound better with voltage input phonos. "

Btw, he owns the Umami along the Lino C and he feels no " confortable " with that phono stage.

Other that the cartridge is a voltage item and looks for a voltage phono stage design and that almost 100% of cartridges were and are voiced by its designers/manufacturers with voltage phono stage designs we need to know what marketing mades/makes inthis specific regards.

Some top phono stage designs as CH gives us both alternatives  voltage/current owner choice and doing that they take advantage with a higher price tag but not because the current design be the main characteristic of its units where the main characteristic is voltage choice and current choice is only a " side line ".

Now is way easy to design and manufacture a phono stage current design but a truly good phono stage voltage design require not only higher knowledge levels from the designer but higher skills too . With a current design we always are at random of the kind of sound we will listen, is full of limitatios and with the voltage designs we can use 100% ( active high gain units ) of vintage and today cartridges at any price tag levels.

As an audiophile and audio item buyer each one of us is absolutely free to makes his choices because is him who must live with those choices. 

The Audio Life is a day by day learning open book, the issue is if we can learn or willing to do it from that open book.

The pleasure to listen MUSIC as nearer to the recording in our systems will be as high or low as all our choosed trade-offs quality levels to build that audio system.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,

R.

The problem with current drive is that to have true current drive, the input impedance of the phono stage has to be zero, and that's not possible (because the signal would go to ground; in effect a mute switch).  Atma-sphere made the interesting point that ICs (often used at the input of current drive phono stages) can present a "virtual ground" at the input.  In other words, a virtual zero input impedance.  But the real world impedance always must be a few ohms above zero.  I think (I guess) that is where the unpredictability in SQ, when matched with various LOMC cartridges, of these devices arises.  The BMC MCCI that I owned in fact uses discrete transistors, not an IC, at its input.  It definitely worked with even my Ortofon MC2000 at .05mV to produce plenty of gain, but I didn't "feel" it.

Update: Lot of listening yesterday with my new TT, cart and phono. I end up preferring Allnic H-6500 (tube) phono over Konus MC3000 (trans impedance) phono in my system. Allnic was more synergistic with rest of my system. For a tube phono (12 tubes), H-6500 is one hell of a phono pre; I am pleasantly surprised by it’s perfect balance being a tube phono (in direct contrast with Konus), it’s dead quiet, harmonics that are synonymous with valves but not overly tubey or syrupy yet incredibly detailed. Not to mention thoughtful features, exquisite build quality and tube rectification in external power supply.

Similarly, Etsuro Bordeaux bettered Fuuga in terms overall detail and depth. Bordeaux is a beautiful sounding cart, just like a fine vino; the passion and attention to detail of artisans at Excel Sound was evident from very first note. Bordeaux aptly renders clarity, balance, and the immersive quality of any well recorded album.

My modest but carefully chosen collection of recordings shined through the foursome of 301, 3P, Bordeaux and H-6500. They allowed music to simply breathe, quiet passages were intimate and louder sections just as impactful without any distortion. The tonal balance was also impeccable, ensuring that no frequency range dominates or feels lacking, bass was tight and controlled, revealing subtle details and nuances that enhances our emotional connection to the music.

I plan on getting Etsuro SUT once I cross the initial break-in threshold.

My next priority is to get a better TT isolation. Thinking about SRA Ohio Class platform and Scuttle 2 level extra-wide custom rack.

Back to cleaning records and more listening. Thank you all for your thoughtful input and advice.

If it were I, I would want to have a concrete reason for why an outboard Etsuro SUT would outperform the SUTs built into the Allnic, before spending the bucks for the Etsuro. There are more readily conceivable reasons why that might be a downgrade rather than an upgrade (extra connectors, extra wiring, added capacitance, etc) than there are good reasons to expect an improvement.

@lewm

Thank you for your input. I hear you on extra connections but this is something I would like to explore down the road. I wouldn’t know if Allnic is doing full justice to Bordeaux unless I pair it with an external SUT. SUT is not a priority right now but more or less a wish list item that needs to be checked off :-)