drewdawg999
Active Member
I've never tried a step up transformer before, but I'm very curious and eager to try one. Reason being that my phono stage, a Musical Surroundings Phonomena, when configured for MC use at 60dB gain, is rather noisy. There's a hiss and a hum that raises the noise floor at idle to about 45dB. I can hear it clearly from my listening position 8-9 feet away from the speakers. It's starting to bother me so I am looking into SUTs. I can then reconfigure the Phonomena back to 40dB gain and 47kOhm loading, where there's no noticeable noise. Otherwise, the Phonomena is a fantastic sounding phono pre, and I lack the funds for any kind of meaningful upgrade so it's a keeper.
The SUT I'm checking out is the Phasemation T-300, quite an affordable option. It's at 1:20 ratio, offering 26dB of gain, which should be good for my Koetsu which has 0.4mV output. That's the same gain as Koetsu's own SUT, which is way out of my price range. Another option is a Cinemag based SUT made by nclayton on eBay. He offers two, one based on the 3440AH, and the other based on the 1254. I checked reviews online and they all agree that the 1254 is a huge upgrade in sound, but alas that option is a little more than I can spend. Don't really feel like settling on the lower model, but wondering how the Phasemation shapes up against the Cinemag. Another option is based on the vintage Altec Peerless 4722 mic pre trannies, supposed to have a sweet succulent sound, but similar to the Cinemag. Found that one online made by a guy named Redboy, who comes highly recommended, but that is also more than I can spend.
Anyone have any experience with SUTs? I guess I don't really have a choice since I'm limited to around $300 budget wise (chump change for these things), and a used Phasemation is the only one that fits, other than the 3440AH Cinemag, which I don't really crave. Currently working out a deal with a Japanese seller on eBay, we'll see how it goes. Hope I can get my noise floor back to an average 30-something dB, looking to make an objective leap in SINAD on my beloved analogue rig. I also have a second table with a high quality MM cart, the Clearaudio Maestro v2, that goes straight into my tube pre's phono input, which is dead quiet. Feel the two need to be closer noise wise to really hear the shining benefits of MC cart quality.
The SUT I'm checking out is the Phasemation T-300, quite an affordable option. It's at 1:20 ratio, offering 26dB of gain, which should be good for my Koetsu which has 0.4mV output. That's the same gain as Koetsu's own SUT, which is way out of my price range. Another option is a Cinemag based SUT made by nclayton on eBay. He offers two, one based on the 3440AH, and the other based on the 1254. I checked reviews online and they all agree that the 1254 is a huge upgrade in sound, but alas that option is a little more than I can spend. Don't really feel like settling on the lower model, but wondering how the Phasemation shapes up against the Cinemag. Another option is based on the vintage Altec Peerless 4722 mic pre trannies, supposed to have a sweet succulent sound, but similar to the Cinemag. Found that one online made by a guy named Redboy, who comes highly recommended, but that is also more than I can spend.
Anyone have any experience with SUTs? I guess I don't really have a choice since I'm limited to around $300 budget wise (chump change for these things), and a used Phasemation is the only one that fits, other than the 3440AH Cinemag, which I don't really crave. Currently working out a deal with a Japanese seller on eBay, we'll see how it goes. Hope I can get my noise floor back to an average 30-something dB, looking to make an objective leap in SINAD on my beloved analogue rig. I also have a second table with a high quality MM cart, the Clearaudio Maestro v2, that goes straight into my tube pre's phono input, which is dead quiet. Feel the two need to be closer noise wise to really hear the shining benefits of MC cart quality.