Moving coil transfprmer?

armstrong,i am running it with out denon step up now and i do like it this way.im running it to my arc pre in balanced inputs.adapters are hooked up to out puts of monolithic,it does give me more gain that way,i just noticed it has to be at 12.00 to 2.00 to sound full. i guess its ok like this,im going to listen to it for a while,and maybe get another phono with the higher gain later.it sounds good now,just wondering about the gain

Hi Bbaxley2,

Running with your pot set between 12 and 2 o'clock is a good place to be ... assuming you don't have any noise issues.

It's not adviseable to have way too much gain, only to have to burn it off through an attenuator. Better "just enough" with a bit left over for head-banging sessions than to be running with your pots at 9 or 10 o'lock.

Cheers,
Thom @ Galibier

I personally prefer an active head amp to a transformer. I haven't tried any of the new ones (if there are any), but the Klynes (SK-1 is good, SK-2a is best) come up from time to time at reasonable prices. In tubed units, the Klimo and the Audio Research are also wonderful. I find that an active head amp gives more dynamics than a transformer, and if you match carefully noise will not be an issue. The Klyne head amps in particular give you more options in terms of resistive loading, which is all important if you are using coils. With transformers, as I understand it, either it matches or it doesn't -- there is no flexibility. Good luck!

This is the seamy side of moving coils. I have owned many active headamps, includingthe Klyne SK-1, and I have had transformers that do give you optional loads, but the best yet is a phono stage with enough gain. The problem is very low output cartridges, which are always the ones I prefer.

With a sensitive enough amp, my H-Cat P-300 phono and P-12R line stage gives me enough gain to even allow a 100 ohm load. The key is an amp with such sensitivity.

Bbaxley2,

Your experience exactly matches mine. With the Monolithic and 103R I was running right at 12 noon on the volume control, and it sounded great. Thom is exactly right - just enough gain is way preferable to too much gain. I wouldn't change out the Monolithic just to add a few dB; if you feel the need to upgrade, concentrate on sonics. You'll have to go a ways to better the Monolithic.

David