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SUT vs. Gain Stage

If your a DIY person this will save 50% minimum or more. Dave Slagle charges $2400 for his pair. You can DIY for less than half. same goes for Hashimoto'.
 
Cinemag CM-1254 transformers can be purchased for well under 300 bucks. It's a not to difficult job mounting them and wiring them up. Some company's think they should mark them up by a factor of 3 or more for doing so.
So if you DIY a set than going the transformer route is not all that expensive.

BillWojo
 
Funny, the OP after asking their question hasn't been back. Maybe they are reading folks' thoughts on this topic.

Even though I'm currently using Wyn's MC preamp and I agree SUTs lean towards the more expensive solution but they are a viable option when paired with a good MM preamp. The caveats of location and loading remain but I added loading jacks (on the secondary side) to my SUT. Each SUT sounds different so finding the right pairing with a particular cartridge can take some time and money. I will hang on to my SUTs because I may find synergy with a future cartridge.

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And I'll guarantee you mine are not going anywhere either.

Bill, those look as good at they perform.
 
AvFan, I'm still here, reading all the responses. I'm in the midst of upgrading my rig and one of the changes being contemplated is configuring two of the carts with SUTs instead of phonostages. It is very interesting to read the replies and I wanted to make sure I wasn't leaving anything on the table making this change. The two carts are a Miyajima Spirit, which I'll be matching with a CineMag 3400AH-based SUT and an Ortofon SPU which I'll find with an internal SUT. I'll probably leave the third table/cart (Dynavector 17D3) on an phonostage (NovaPhonomena).
 
I am using a Boozehound again stage and with excellent results , it has wide variety of loading options which is nice and needed for my carts. I used to have a Graham Slee Acession and it is also excellent . I will say that my gain stage is dead quiet compared to the Acession which had some noise but nothing that was irritating to me.

Audiofreak71
 
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jonnyglass said:
AvFan, I'm still here, reading all the responses. I'm in the midst of upgrading my rig and one of the changes being contemplated is configuring two of the carts with SUTs instead of phonostages. It is very interesting to read the replies and I wanted to make sure I wasn't leaving anything on the table making this change. The two carts are a Miyajima Spirit, which I'll be matching with a CineMag 3400AH-based SUT and an Ortofon SPU which I'll find with an internal SUT. I'll probably leave the third table/cart (Dynavector 17D3) on an phonostage (NovaPhonomena).
Click to expand...

I hope the conversation is beneficial. So it looks like you might be selecting just one SUT, for the mono Sprit, since the Ortofon will have its own? The Nova has only one input so are you going to add a MM preamp to run the Spirit/CineMag? Or are you going to switch the Nova to MM when running the Spirit?
 
Audiofreak71 said:
I am using a Boozehound SUT and with excellent results , it has wide variety of loading options which is nice and needed for my carts. I used to have a Graham Slee Acession and it is also excellent . I will say that my SUT is dead quiet compared to the Acession which had some noise but nothing that was irritating to me.

Audiofreak71
Click to expand...

My google skills are lacking. What does the Boozehound SUT look like? How does it handle loading?
 
AvFan said:
My google skills are lacking. What does the Boozehound SUT look like? How does it handle loading?
Click to expand...
Here it is, loading is done via the knob on the back and I believe the range is between 50-5000 , it uses JFETS and sounds very good to my ears.
E71460CF-F87C-4C3B-831B-9C8988CBBBBC.jpeg
3E05F8A6-D387-4AFF-B24C-D4C87E4524FD.jpeg

Audiofreak71
 
AvFan said:
I hope the conversation is beneficial. So it looks like you might be selecting just one SUT, for the mono Sprit, since the Ortofon will have its own? The Nova has only one input so are you going to add a MM preamp to run the Spirit/CineMag? Or are you going to switch the Nova to MM when running the Spirit?
Click to expand...
Yeah, still figuring out the preamp situation which will have some bearing on the final configuration and will need to experiment a bit to see what sounds best. I also have a PS Audio phonostage. If the preamp has a nice sounding phono input, will compare that against the PS Audio with the two carts. My listening is 95% mono jazz so the really critical thing is for the Spirit to sound as good as it can. I'm also not adverse to switching RCA's while getting things sorted.
 
jonnyglass said:
Yeah, still figuring out the preamp situation which will have some bearing on the final configuration and will need to experiment a bit to see what sounds best.
Click to expand...

Every time I change a part of the MC phono chain I go through this exercise to find what sounds best. I have three MM capable phono preamps, two SUTs (one with two gain settings) and two MC capable phono preamps. Each has a different sound at various cartridge loads so I have a lot of combinations available. I feel fortunate to have lots of options but it takes some time to work through them. The MM side has fewer options but I run through a range of capacitive loading with each MM preamp to find one that works best. Enjoy the process!
 
jonnyglass said:
...one of the changes being contemplated is configuring two of the carts with SUTs instead of phonostages.
Click to expand...
You can't use a SUT instead of a phonostage. When using a SUT you still need a phonostage, just one configured for MM operation. Sorry if you knew that already and I just misunderstood your post.
Audiofreak71 said:
Here it is, loading is done via the knob on the back and I believe the range is between 50-5000 , it uses JFETS and sounds very good to my ears.
Click to expand...
That isn't a SUT, it's a headamp - aka a pre-preamp - or a "gain stage" as the OP referred to it in his first post.
 
rothwellaudio said:
You can't use a SUT instead of a phonostage. When using a SUT you still need a phonostage, just one configured for MM operation. Sorry if you knew that already and I just misunderstood your post.
Click to expand...

Yeah - sorry for the imprecise wording, I meant using a SUT into a MM phonostage rather than using an MC phonostage. RIAA is pretty important as is the additional gain.
 
rothwellaudio said:
You can't use a SUT instead of a phonostage. When using a SUT you still need a phonostage, just one configured for MM operation. Sorry if you knew that already and I just misunderstood your post.

That isn't a SUT, it's a headamp - aka a pre-preamp - or a "gain stage" as the OP referred to it in his first post.
Click to expand...
Thanks for clarifying that ,learn something new each day and I’m still learning this stuff.

Audiofreak71
 
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