VAC Owners:Outboard Phono Stage?

Alon,

Thanks for the compliment. I was mainly just talking about the differences between running the Steelhead as a preamp vs. through my preamp. The latter sounds better, and my post tried to speculate as to why. I didn't mean to generalize beyond the two components. It may well be that some other phono stage (e.g. an IO Signature, as Jwm recommends) with a volume control would be much better than the Steelhead direct, or the Steelhead through VAC preamp, for that matter. No reason why it couldn't be, as Al says.

Bill

Bill,
No worries, your post was very helpful to me, even if I extrapolated your explanation a bit beyond your intention. Of course, a 5-figure phono stage could very well be better, but it would still need a line stage, volume control etc. for it to work. So going direct is not really so direct. Either way, whether I consider a pure phono stage or one that has volume control, it's going to be the quality of the design and circuitry and its interaction with my system that will make the difference. That's what clicked when I read your post, so thank you for that.

Al,
Thank you as well for reinforcing that I'm at least asking the right questions in my exploration. I have thought much on the 2 Box vs. 1 Box issue (especially since room on my rack is limited), and if I could do it without the need for a very high WAF, I'd probably just upgrade my VAC Standard LE preamp to the Signature Mk IIa, which I'm sure sports a much better phono stage! But, as crazy as we are in this hobby, I love my wife more than I love new gear.

Cheers,
Alon

OK, I'm intrigued. I took Jfrech's advice and did some research on SUTs. I read about the EAR, Audionote, Ortofon, Bob's Devices, and K&K. This is a whole new animal.

There's some intimation that SUTs work best with tube MM phono stages, which leads me to the question:

Do any VAC preamp owners on this thread have experience replacing the built-in MC phono stage with an SUT?

Great, I just added another month to my research timeline... glad I love this stuff.

Might also check out the E.A.R. MC4, this is the one I am demo'ing right now and will likely purchase...I'm sincerely impressed.

Here is another opinion: http://www.ultraaudio.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=197:ear-mc-4-step-up-transformer&catid=37:full-length-reviews&Itemid=2

I wish I could help you better how it works with your VAC...works great with my Nagra ;-)

Upgrade to better vac preamp with phono built in is the route i would go too