Ron, I'm sure that you are enjoying your system's performance and maybe what I posted could help you to think and try to improve it.
No doubt Raul genuinely cares for everyone here to enjoy the music but such a comment implies that his way is ultimately the only way to improve the system.
I have read many A'gon threads where a few regular members have politely bashed SUT's with the claims of distortions, clipped dynamics, marginal capability to correctly load a cartridge, etc., etc. Having little experience with SUTs, I put this in the back of my mind until I would get the opportunity to hear an SUT. Actually, the BAT VK-P10 that I owned a few years ago had an internal SUT and it did indeed clip the dynamics a little bit but otherwise it sounded mighty good. I did not need the extra gain so I kept this switched out.
Recently I took delivery of the Aria WV preamp. This is designed by Michael Elliot the designer of the famed Counterpoint SA-9 and SA-11. In the SA-9, he used JFET's on the MC input and then drove this into a tube stage. Later on he provided SUTs, first Jensen and more recently Sowter 8055's to replace the JFET input. Gain here was 20db.
Michael Elliot has written that he will not go back to a JFET input as they have their own set of problems. And in his opinion, tubes are just not appropriate for the MC input stage due to the noise issue. Like all the designers discussed here, he has taken his own road here and has clearly achieved much success.
The WV uses the Sowter 8055. This was chosen after comparing several others in a blind shootout. He discusses this
here.
This is an internal implementation with some optimizations in the WV for this device. One advantage too is the elimination of an IC which I have found to be very significant and an often overlooked link in the chain. Any claims that one can not optimize cartridge loading are dismissed here as the WV provides a pair of RCA jacks for cartridge loading to any desired value. No internal toggle switches or jumpers or soldering is required.
I have been listening with the WV for 3 months now. As a preliminary report here, I have concluded that the negative generalizations about SUTs by many people do not apply with the WV's implementation. Compared to an Aesthetix Io Signature, the WV with the Sowters does not constrain dynamics at all. In fact the WV exceeds the Io in this regard. But this is not an Io strength anyway. If I use a highly modified ARC MCP-33 (a top-performer in the dynamic contrast scene) into the WV's MM input, the WV's SUT MC input easily holds its own against the ARC in dynamics.
As well received as the ARC was 20 years ago, it had a captive power cord, was used with an interconnect that nobody would tolerate today, and had a circuit board of mediocre passive parts. With much of this updated, this MCP-33 is in a whole new world. And still, the WV with its lowly SUT is mighty impressive with the dynamics. As for distortions, low-level resolution and noise level, the performance here is at a level the MCP-33 does not come close to achieving. And yet there is an appeal to the MCP-33's sound in how it portrays harmonic textures, particularly piano. A return to the WV's SUT input and there is a loss of some of this "bloom" and yet the significant level of clarity and openness with the WV makes one quickly forget about it.
To go throw my stash of 6DJ8/6922/7308 tubes and find the lowest noise tubes, I can get the ARC's noise level quite low. And with a hand-picked quad of 12ax7's for the Io's input stage, I got this mighty quiet too. But the noise level with the WV's SUT's is a whole new world as well. There are clearly compromises in any of these options.
Once I get the Counterpoint SA-2 updated with the same parts as used in the WV, I will have another data point on how a tubed MC compares with the WV's SUT MC input.
The WV's experience has educated me that much of the generalizations that I have read here about SUTs is just not true. I kept the Io and the rebuilt ARC and the older SA-2 just in case. But in the final analysis, the internal SUT option at $200 might end up being the greatest value, other than the $25 pair of Amperex 7062 pinched waist tubes for the WV, that I have found in a long time.
It's been a long time that I have heard a solid-state based phono stage. All that I heard, Spectral, Klyne, Threshold and Krell years ago were simply too sterile and dimensionally flat. No doubt this is not universally true for many solid-state phono stages of today, so I'll try to keep an open mind here. But for now, I'm very impressed with the implementation of the Sowters in the WV.
John
