Heard an Audio Innovations SUT at the Bakeoff, I think it would be perfect. Not sure on price or availability.
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Rothwell Audio make some excellent step-ups at very reasonable prices.
I sold a Croft RIAA RS yesterday after the customer borrowed and tried several other phono stages from other retailers. He will be using it with his MM cartridge for the time being and add a step-up at a later date.
Thanks for the heads-up, Dave. If one is planning to use an MC cartridge, the dilemma is whether an MC phono stage would be preferable to an MM phono stage + SUT. Thoughts, please?
By the way, can the Croft RIAA RS be possibly further improved with some tweaks? Or is it the end of the road?
Whether you use a 'good' transformer or a head-amp is down to personal choice, as always with Hi-Fi. Poor examples of each are common and will render the performance of the RIAA RS, useless. Rothwell make excellent transformers and head-amps at reasonable prices and you can pay a lot more and get less. If you want a better transformer, the prices are likely to escalate.
The RIAA RS already uses decent parts but I'm sure Glenn can add some extra tweaky bits at extra cost. Whether they improve the preformance or not is debatable. You can swap valves easily and without breaking the bank.
Indeed, from personal experience, replacing the stock JJ ECC83 valves with NOS valves (e.g. Tesla E83CC or Mullard ECC83, both different in character) can significantly improve the overall sound quality. And ECC83 valves are not that expensive, compared to other valve types...
I'm a little late to this thread. Did you get one pankon?
I have a Riaa RS (got it in April) and also use a MM3-cart w/Isolator on my NAS Spacedeck. I'm very happy with the RS. Great resolution, transients and a firm grip on things. I haven't done any tube-rolling yet...so can't comment on nuances and ways to improve the sound. But it seems that replacing the ecc99/12bh7a tube can do wonders if you find a good NOS.
Thanks for the great feedback, Lars. By the way, what's the rest of your system, i.e. amp(s) and speakers? Have you tried any MC cartridges with a SUT on the RIAA RS? No, I have not yet purchased a RIAA RS yet. Still getting used to my Micro25RS LS (line only), which is a definite improvement of the previous Micro 25R guise.
By the way, I have tried several 12BH7A in my Croft preamp and power amps and you can tune the sound the way you like it. 12BH7As are not so expensive either.