Moving coil transfprmer?

I have had many transformers for low output moving coils: Cotter, Denon, Techniques, Auditorium, AudioNote, and Neumann. I have always hoped that I would find a phono stage with enough gain to not need either a transformer or a head amp prior to the phono stage. I have had success with all but the lowest output cartridges, which are the ones I find best.

I don't agree with Dougdeacon about the Cotter. I traded mine long ago to a guy in Japan for the Techniques 304 amorphous metal transform. He was happy and so was I. I have found the old Neumann that I won on Ebay to be the best I have heard, but that is with my Shindo cartridge and may be different with other cartridges.

Have you tried the Monolithic at the highest gain setting without the SUT in the circuit? I ran my Denon 103R with my Monolithic PS-1/HC-1b combo and at 54dB had plenty of gain, and it was still dead quiet. I realize 60dB is recommended for the 103 series, but if the rest of your system has enough gain it should work fine.

David

Armstrod, if this is directed to me, I have never even heard of the Monolithic.

Tbg,

Sorry for the confusion; the post was for Bbaxley2. He's using the Monolithic.

David

Bbaxley: If transparency, low noise, and low distortion are within your checklist, try a low noise phono stage. Solid state units are best in this department, but you will also find a couple tubed ones with good performance. The idea is to avoid using a transformer; the detail loss, coloration and diminished frequency extremes may be subtle, but they are real.

Regards,