Phono preamp or SUT for low output moving coil

Hi Raul,

What is essential for me, and you and I had discussed this some time ago and reached agreement, is that any phono stage must - MUST - accurately amplify the signal it is processing in accordance with the RIAA curve.  The Stellar happens to do this very well.  Everything else, and I mean that literally, is secondary to that requirement.  And yet very few do including many very expensive ones. 

A SUT is just gain. Little if any ability to manage impedance to best match the needs of the cartridge. I would advise finding a photo stage that has the necessary gain plus impedance adjustments. 65 - 70 db is needed. 

sgordo, I beg to differ; a SUT has everything to do with the impedance the cartridge will see. There is a direct mathematical correlation, in fact. And the more voltage gain afforded by a SUT, the lower the impedance seen by the cartridge, which will be the input impedance of the phono stage (usually 47K ohms) divided by the square of the turns ratio (which is synonymous with voltage gain). This law of behavior can create difficulties if you want to augment the signal voltage of LOMCs with high internal resistance or low output MI types (because they have relatively very high inductance) using a SUT.