Dear Jon: The Ortofon 7500 is a top contender, it don't have the immediate/alive sound reproduction of the Decca or Ikeda cartridges but is very well balanced top to bottom, good in the low bass and very transparent in the highs. It is a very low output cartridge and needs a lot of clean gain.
THe T-2000 can do the job but I don't recomended it, this is my experiences and what I think about any step-up transformer:
+++++ " The SUT is an old patch for bad SS phonopreamps designs and for the inherent limitations on tube phonopreamps for handle low output MC cartridges. It is a " chip solution to a complex problem ".
Any SUT has many inherent disadvantages like: distortions generated at the core ( it does not matters if is: air core ), heavy phase discharge ( landslide ), high apt to take hum, the wide zone ( band ) can't go down to DC, severe roll-off at high and low frecuencies, the reactive impedance on the SUT is incompatible with the cartridge impedance: this cause that we never could have flat frecuency response when we are using SUT, this mismatch between the impedances promote that the signal that pass through any SUT will be equalized ( yes, exactly like the problems between tube amplifier and loudspeakers because of those impedances ).
Any time with any of you we can make the tests and prove all those disadvantages and others like the additional cables that you have to use, additional connectors, the SUT is an additional ( filter ) link in the analog audio chain.
I want to let clear that there is no single advantage, in any way, using SUT's, any of them: it does not matters their design or price.
The SUT always be a : wrong PATCH. " +++++ The signal that pass through a SUT suffer a severe degradation.
My advice is that you go for a high-gain phonolinepreamp.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
