SUT for Lyra Clavis Evolve 99

The Air Tight ATC-1 preamp doesn't offer any adjustment in the phono stage loading or capacitance. I have read of people changing the 47 kohm resistor in other preamps assuming that the ATC-1 has one which I bet it does, but I have never played with these things.

I don't know the price of the Nagra equipment but I guess I am more into buying a SUT for cost savings. I have a perception of Nagra being expensive equipment.

Using the Clearaudio Stradivari with the 40 ohms tap (10x voltage) seems perfect "on paper" as Flyfish2002 explains it but as he says it is going to be difficult to find a transformer for the Lyra. The problem is the volume pot of the preamp has to be SO LOW it is not nice with the transformers with high gain/low impedance. I would like to get close to the cartridge impedance with the SUT impedance as Lyra recommends it (below 10 ohms).

I think the rest of the explanation of the MC-4 is interesting perhaps it is the solution, if a bit too expensive. Thnak you

Alanpiga,

Another factor with SUTs is that the SUT will "step down" the impedance that the cartridge "sees" at the phono stage by a factor of the voltage gain squared.

So, for my set-up, at the 40 ohm tap, the gain is 10x the voltage (0.7mV to 7.0mV). My phono stage presents an impedance to the cartrdige of 47k ohm. With the SUT, the stepped down impedance is: 47k ohm/(10^2) = 470 ohm.

This works fine for my Stradavari, as Strats like between 250 - 500 ohms. However, if it did not, my phono stage allows me to use resistors soldered internally to adjust the impedance. The same calculation would be done on this altered impedance to determine the actual impedance the cartrdige sees:

Altered impedance with resistors/(10^2)

Likely that AirTight permits the same.

There are other SUTs out there that are more cost effective. The issue is the transformer windings, which if done less than perfectly can f****p your sound. Tim P is know to be anal retentative about his transformer windings. I paid for "insurance".

I rarely see used EAR gear on AudioGon - maybe satisfied owners??

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