Transformer stepup size

Hi Raul,
Thanks for the many recommendations. I'll add them to my list in case I decide to upgrade phono stage and/or preamp someday.

The phono stage was a Sonic Frontiers, an SF-1 I think though I never saw or heard it. It had both an MC and an MM phono stage. It was boosting a Shelter 501MkII (.4mv) into a c-j PV-10 preamp. The owner tried the following configurations:

A. 501 >> SF-1 MC input >> PV-10 line input
B. 501 >> BentAudio Mu >> SF-1 MM input >> PV-10 line input
C. 501 >> BentAudio Mu >> PV-10 MM input

He reported that A was the worst, B was much better, C was best. We can ignore C for this discussion since it merely compares the two different MM phono stages. The comparison of interest was A vs. B, where B was reportedly much better.

The SF-1 had three adjustable gain settings: 44, 54 and 62db. I presume (hope) the 62db setting was being used for configuration A and the 44db setting for configuration B. That would put A and B just 2db apart when my 1:10 SUT's were plugged in. Any thoughts?

This Sonic Frontiers phono stage it's a unit that appear in the years 92/93 in two models: your friend one an a signature model, I thing that the price was around 1,000.00 and 1,800.00 for the signature. Your friend model is a hybrid one and is a moderate gain ( not high-gain ) and a little noisy product. For today standards it is at the bottom end of a mid-fi product.
Regards.
Raul.

No disagreement on the SF from the little I've read, but that's irrelevant. If an SF is what my budget allows, why tell me that a more expensive unit is better? If I asked you for tonearm recommendations under $1K I hope you wouldn't insist that I demo a Schroeder Reference.

For this listener, going into the phono stage he already owned, he got better results from a SUT than from the high gain circuit, at virtually equal gain levels. That flat out disproves any absolutist position that a high gain stage is "always" superior to a SUT.

With unlimited resources and freedom to choose from among all available components I agree with you, the simplest path is likely to be best. But that isn't the real world for most people.

Dear Doug: I re-read your posts in this Divo thread and your last post don't makes any sense to me other that: " looking for a fight " or " I'm right you are wrong ".
Those attitudes are loosing time for both of us and for other readers.
No, tks.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Well that sums it up, thank goodness.

In support of, "NEVER USE A STEPUP TRANSFORMER", we shall also adopt, "NEVER LET CIRCUMSTANCES OVERRULE DOGMA."

I stand corrected, humbled even. You have my vote for the next papal vacancy, there could hardly be a stonger candidate.