MC phono stage without transformer?

Dear Plinko, To be truthful, I probably could not afford a new MP1, so some years ago I bought mine used at a rather low price, because it had been badly abused by a series of owners, but it had been originally built with many expensive extras, like an all-Vishay S102 attenuator. I then spent about a year completely rebuilding it back to the latest MP1 spec, with Atma-sphere assistance and with a few twists of my own thrown in in recent years. (Ralph is a really great guy.) I learned a great deal in the process. Nevertheless, I refer back to my first post on this thread: I think a new MP1 or Raul's preamp or the Vacuum State and a few other full function preamps at around the $10k price point are relative bargains, because you do get such high performance and versatility for the buck, at a time when there are some outlandishly priced separate line and phono stages on the market that go way over $10K.

Lew, I would agree. If one wants value, look at the full function preamps. I moved away from separates and bought one myself.

The PS Audio PS II outboard preamp that I bought about 1980 is spec'd (and measured) with RIAA within 0.1 dB. So I guess that's not such a big deal. It uses a passive equalization network.

Hi Viper,
What's left over from my old system is a vacuum tube Supratek preamp with built in phonostage that will drive a MC cartridge with a output voltage as low as 0.2 mv WITH OUT the use of step up devices.

The Chenin model are quite good and would be very difficult to beat, if at all for the used selling price.

Keep an eye out for a used one, stock unit prefered, totally unmodified.
Their web site is still up @ supratek.biz/preamp.htm

Dear friends: I come back on the RIAA eq subject because there is a subject of critical importance where almost no one ( and I say " almost " only because I don't read any single post on Agon but the true is that I never read nothing about. ) speaks on and that it is almost important as is the accuracy on the RIAA: inverse eq.RIAA interchannel deviation.

What this means?, well in a Phonolinepreamp or Phono stage we have the RIAA for the left channel and the one for the right channel. In a perfect world both must be exactly the same ( mimic ), any deviation between them degrade makes a signal degradation in many ways and yes you can hear it.
Take a look to some Phono stage measures through Stereophile on the RIAA subject and in all of those measurements ( SS or tube ) exist deviation between left and right channels RIAA curve of 0.1db ( for say the least ) and higher.

Now, we have to have not only " matched " inverse RIAA eq. curve channels but at the same importance level we must have both channels with the same gain, 0.1db of gain difference between channels well makes a " difference " in the performance and leave us faraway from the recording.

So IMHO are ( at least ) three critical areas to make justice to the recording through a Phonolinepreamp: inverse eq. RIAA accuracy, no interchannel deviation on the inverse eq. RIAA curve and matched gain in both channels.

As any one can see the Phonolinepreamp ( RIAA ) is truly a complex subject and a true challenge for any one that try to be near/truer to the recording.

Why am I posting about?, well because those subjects are IMHO of paramount importance and ( if the design take in count with care. ) make a great difference in the quality sound reproduction/performance .

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.