which is better ? MC phono stage or MM+step-up ?

Ralph, your statement on lomc voltage and current is profound. Indeed it is the very essence of how SUTs work.
If only I knew more about the basic concepts of current,voltage,impedance,capacitance and the laws that govern them.Having no background in electronics other than it can kill you I am somewhat in the dark. Having built a SUT I am experiencing the results and consequences of those laws.
This is giving me a taste of the concept of matching and summitry.I really would like to learn more.Keep up the good posts.

To anyone: My SUT default load is 200ohms.Can I load it even lower? It seems to be working very well with my lomc (a Benz Gold)but sometimes vocals seem very slightly strident. When words end in S,it some times sounds like snakes.This is not consistent.
One other thing I am experiencing:If I have a non-shielded interconnect plugged into the preamp I get hum.If I unplug the interconnect the hum is gone.Any suggestions?

e

Emorrisiv, sounds like you have a grounding problem. Make sure the arm ground, transformer ground and cable shields are all good. You can tie the arm ground to the SUT ground at the SUT's input and that should be consistent with the ground at the output of the SUT.

There could be a loading issue, but I would not mess with it until you have the hum problem fixed! If the ground is not right there could be ringing in the cable (anyone how has worked with oscilloscope probes knows what I am talking about); IOW the hum and the sibilance could be related.

Thanks Ralph, I have been playing with different ground solutions.I have installed a ground plug on the SUT and it really didn't make any difference. I think it would be best if I had a very short cable from the tonearm to the SUT.
The present tonearm cable is very long (1.5 meter).I could just cut the cable and resolder the RCAs.
I also built a short cable which is shielded and I have the shield ground connected at one end only.This cable goes from the SUT output to the phono section.This really helped the sound,taking alot of the snakes out and cleaning things up in general. It really is crying out for a good tube preamp/mm section.
I am in search of a 5 din DIN connector for the tonearm. I know that Cardas makes them but at $50.00 seems pricey.(unemployment stinks!).They also make DIN to RCA connector boxs which are stupid expensive ($250.00) for what they are.
I may have to just chunk down for it anyway.
Can you offer advice on making this cable?
What kind of wire to use ? Do you solder or use leads for the DIN connector? I was also thinking of wiring the tonearm right to the SUT without using a extra cable.
This is a very interesting project. Since I don't listen to CDs much,I have just kept it unplugged from the Preamp and then the SUT is very quiet.
As for the loading.The SUT default load is 200ohm so that is pretty low and right at the low end of the recommended setting by Benz. The snakes from the Ss in vocals is not consistent and I think it is a matter of the recording microphone. The sound is articulate but not strident shows some warmth with nice mids and bass with trebles that can sparkle.

Thanks for the help.

If you are getting sibilance you need to look at why. I guarantee its not on the records. You could be having RF problems- that is in keeping with sibilance and hum BTW.

We always solder the DIN connections when we build a phono cable. My advice: be very careful!

The ground scenario I outlined previously will be fairly resistant to RF BTW.

Emorrisiv, It sounds like you are aware of Michael Percy Audio. If not, go to his site under that name. He does carry the Cardas DIN plug (for less than $50), but as I recall he carries other brands that cost less. Vampire and Neutrix are always cost-effective choices in the connector world. Then I would recommend you to choose some XLO copper wire, 26ga or thinner, for the wiring. It's excellent and "cheap" as audiophile wire goes. Vampire wire would be good too. (I use his 26ga silver wire with cotton insulation, if you want to spend more dough. Sounds fantastic.) He also has braided shield. I think you can get all the stuff you need to make a very high quality IC for under $75, if you choose well.