Popularity of a step-up transformer?

Ussually these days buzz comes from 3 main sources if to speak about SUT:
1. Tonearm grounding and tonearm itself. Some of tonearms hums by design.
2. Cable between SUT and Phono must be shielded. No exceptions.
3. Loose connections. Many years ago manufacturers used standard rca socket female/male dimensions. Not today.

Mine has no buzz, no hum, no hiss--completely silent and quite.
1. The ground wire (black wire in photo) from the tonearm is unconnected. No extra cable between the tonearm and SUT. No RCA plugs. No RCA sockets. No switches. Just solder the tonearm internal wires directly to SUT unsheilded primary wires. Hard wired to one turn ratio at a time.
2. Again no extra cable between SUT and the phono stage--just directly screwed the SUT unsheilded secondary wires to gold plated pure copper RCA plugs. All magnetically active parts came with the plugs are unused.
3. The same brand same material gold plated pure copper RCA sockets are used. The perfect fits are acheived. They are soldered directly to the phono stage PCB--no intermediate cables are used.

The result is extremely transparent.
20250129_063954.jpg

1000053090.jpg1000053088.jpg
 
Listened to these ..level matched to within 0.4db
Music First
Audionote S6
Consolidated Audio
Lyra Kleos and Ear Youshino 324

Quite surprised that the sound difference was so obvious as it was. Makes the objectivist in me wonder what is going on. Some matching effects do matter …


img_6937-jpeg.1107924
 
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Mine has no buzz, no hum, no hiss--completely silent and quite.
1. The ground wire (black wire in photo) from the tonearm is unconnected. No extra cable between the tonearm and SUT. No RCA plugs. No RCA sockets. No switches. Just solder the tonearm internal wires directly to SUT unsheilded primary wires. Hard wired to one turn ratio at a time.
2. Again no extra cable between SUT and the phono stage--just directly screwed the SUT unsheilded secondary wires to gold plated pure copper RCA plugs. All magnetically active parts came with the plugs are unused.
3. The same brand same material gold plated pure copper RCA sockets are used. The perfect fits are acheived. They are soldered directly to the phono stage PCB--no intermediate cables are used.

The result is extremely transparent.
View attachment 144498

View attachment 144505View attachment 144500
Not cats in the home I guess..
 
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Listened to these ..level matched to within 0.4db
Music First
Audionote S6
Consolidated Audio
Lyra Kleos and Ear Youshino 324

Quite surprised that the sound difference was so obvious as it was. Makes the objectivist in me wonder what is going on. Some matching effects do matter …


img_6937-jpeg.1107924
And...?
 
img_6936-jpeg.1107927
img_4756-jpeg.1108153
…. AudioNote 300B Japan version, also Maratz Model 7 original Mint. EMT 930, and some speakers I forgot to Get the name of.

EDIT Consolidated Turnratio is 1:

Michael advised me to go for a 1:12 turns ratio, given that my EAR324 phono stage does not have a lot of headroom to handle an excessively amplified input voltage.​

 
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Seem like Devore Fidelity O/93.
I was asking about the comparison, which one came at the top of the list?
 
Listened to these ..level matched to within 0.4db
Music First
Audionote S6
Consolidated Audio
Lyra Kleos and Ear Youshino 324

Quite surprised that the sound difference was so obvious as it was. Makes the objectivist in me wonder what is going on. Some matching effects do matter …


img_6937-jpeg.1107924


The objectivist in me wonders what differences you objectively heard between the suts mentioned.
 
Listened to these ..level matched to within 0.4db
Music First
Audionote S6
Consolidated Audio
Lyra Kleos and Ear Youshino 324

Quite surprised that the sound difference was so obvious as it was. Makes the objectivist in me wonder what is going on. Some matching effects do matter …


img_6937-jpeg.1107924
What wires/cables are you using?
 
What wires/cables are you using?
I do not know, and do not care much about cables as long as the LCR values are appropriate enough to not screw up the phono signal .and have proper shielding/low noise pickup. Professional cables, not hi-fi cables.
 
The objectivist in me wonders what differences you objectively heard between the suts mentioned.
Good question, I cannot hear anything objectively. But subjectively one SuT in particular sounded thin , bright and had a smaller sound image. We went Back and forth and and rechecked levels but my impression remained. To exaggerate one sounded like a transistor table radio, and another like a full range stereo system.

I had a SUT once that measured a significant drop in bass level below 60hz compared to others , maybe the same happened here.
 
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Seem like Devore Fidelity O/93.
I was asking about the comparison, which one came at the top of the list?
If I had to choose and had too much money I would go for Consolidated Audio, For features I would go for Music First, the sound was not to different from Consolidated. Consolidated and AudioNote sounded remarkably different. And I am an objectivist and do not hear differences in cables, feet or power products.
But before I spend such money I would measure the SUTs to make sure the difference I hear is real..I will be surprised if what I heard was not measurable.
 
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Get one built for you by Dave Slagle at EM/IA — I own so many SUTs, and his are amongst the best sounding.
 
Among the SUTS that you have, which of them are considered superior to EMIA?
The latest Lyra Erodion EVO, for my Lyras. But, let’s take Koetsu for example: the Slagle beats the Koetsu SUT easily.
 
Just to visualize som effects of loading on a SUT..

First different secondary loading
1721816430357-png.1042018


Then searching for optomal cartridge/source resistance..
1721844644736-png.1042122


And finally load tuning with Zobel network (R-C) on secondary, as recommended by Rothwell
1722009275972-png.1042630
 
technics sh 305 mc

Mitch cotter type I for cartridges from 2-30 Ohm silver
I do own both.

The Technics provides turn ratios of 1:10, 1:16 and 1:40 what let the cartridge see 470Ω, 184Ω or 29Ω. The Cotter/ Verion MK1 can be configured for various turn ratios with 1:20 (cartridge sees 118Ω) beeing the most common setup.

Consequently they need different cartridges to show what´s really in them.
 
I do own both.

The Technics provides turn ratios of 1:10, 1:16 and 1:40 what let the cartridge see 470Ω, 184Ω or 29Ω. The Cotter/ Verion MK1 can be configured for various turn ratios with 1:20 (cartridge sees 118Ω) beeing the most common setup.

Consequently they need different cartridges to show what´s really in them.
Works surprisingly well with 1:16 and 1:20 with my cartridge which mostly have 4-7 ohms impedance.I only use now silvercore pro 1:20 and i only play input impedance of my phono from 20k to 150kohms.20250627_145710.jpg
 
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Works surprisingly well with 1:16 and 1:20 with my cartridge which mostly have 4-7 ohms impedance.I only use now silvercore pro 1:20 and i only play input impedance of my phono from 20k to 150kohms.
The Cotter/ Verion MK1 in 1:20 paired with Koetsu Onyx Agate Platinum, POEM and Goldline sounds sublime. The Technics SH-305MC in 1:10 is a really good match to Denon DL-311LC or Highphonic MC-A3 and its 1:16 setting matches well with Fidelity Research FR-1 MK2 and MK3F, the 1:40 setting with SPU Meister or the famous old limited number Gold Reference and other low impedance and low output MCs. But a Fidelity Research XF-1L produces more bass and the entré ET-100 in 1:40 setting has a bit more details over all.

I know perception is individual and always highly subjective but it´s also individual reality. ;)
 
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The Cotter/ Verion MK1 in 1:20 paired with Koetsu Onyx Agate Platinum, POEM and Goldline sounds sublime. The Technics SH-305MC in 1:10 is a really good match to Denon DL-311LC or Highphonic MC-A3 and its 1:16 setting matches well with Fidelity Research FR-1 MK2 and MK3F, the 1:40 setting with SPU Meister or the famous old limited number Gold Reference and other low impedance and low output MCs. But a Fidelity Research XF-1L produces more bass and the entré ET-100 in 1:40 setting has a bit more details over all.

I know perception is individual and always highly subjective but it´s also individual reality. ;)
The Cotter is a musical force, I still love it. The Technics impressed me back then with its airy, powerful sound. When John, a friend of mine, came around the corner in 2008 with Silvercore and said, "Listen to this with the Dynavector XV 1s," it was done. I've never used any other transformers again. It's so much better. It's hard to describe the dynamics and openness. It's like a window has been opened in the music. I heard things I've never heard before. Compliments to Christof Kraus. Very, very well done. All mine diy phonostages use silvercore suts.20240508_141426.jpg
 
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