step up transformer for clearaudio

Csr827,
+++ How would i know the overload spec of my clearaudio phono stage?+++

By looking up the spec. sheet, or if not in the spec. sheet asking the man that makes the stuff, no?

Greetings,
Axel

Hi Csr827, it will be obvious audible if you overload the input. The sound will be unbearable thin, distorted and somehow "breathless" (in a most negative sense of the word) and it will be obvious that something is entirely "wrong".

Get the manufacturer contacted and ask him about the maximum allowed input voltage in the phono input.
He should know the answer within 5 seconds, as this is one of the key parameters of any phono stage worth the name.

But please keep in mind, that the influence of a SUT is diminishing with increased source output of the MC. You already have a medium to high output MC. Don't expect even a well matched SUT to make a difference like night and day. What you will get is increased dynamic, punch and "inner gain" (in the sense of more power, as if you are running your car with the next more powerful engine..).
But these effects will be rather small.

Dear Larry: +++++ " any form of active amplification adds noise whereas an SUT does not add noise. " +++++

IMHO your statement is a misunderstood. There is no perfect electronic devices ( pasive or active ). Any SUT has its own distortions ( colorations, noise, inaccuracies, etc, ) as an active amplification.
Which one makes lesser degradation to a cartridge signal?, this deppend on the design and the execution of that design and how you mate it to the cartridge.

So, IMHO your statement makes no sense or means that you don't understand almost nothing about. There is a lot of posts in this forum about SUT and active phono stage amplification, so I don't want to repeat what you can read anywhere in the forum.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Raul said to Larryi, "So, IMHO your statement makes no sense or means that you don't understand almost nothing about."

The always tactful and all knowing Raul. Raul this is why I love you.

Bob

Raul,

Sure, SUTs distort. But, correctly implemented, an SUT does not introduce hiss or any such noise not correlated with the signal. Sure, "noise" can be introduced from imperfect shielding, but the act of converting current to voltage in the SUT itself (i.e., the "amplification" is noise free). That cannot be said of any form of active amplification (look it up in EE journals).

Solid state devices are low enough in terms of noise production that active amplification with solid state devices can also be, for all practical purposes, noise free. SUTs are used in tube phonostages because, in part, it is much harder to get noise-free high gain amplification using tubes.

Whether someone likes the sound of tubes or solid state or SUT or active amplification is a personal matter. There are plenty of designers (and purchasers) who will take the trade-off of SUT distortion and tube noise and distortion over the sound of solid state.

Yes, Raul, many of us are idiots. But, not everyone who disagrees with you -- on the superiority of solid state, on the superiority of moving magnet over moving coils, on the superiority of your own product over anything man or god has ever conceived -- is necessarily an idiot.