Step up transformers (SUT's)

[Wakefield Turntables]

Probably going to be the most stupid question I ever asked but what exact does one of these things do for your system?? what benefits would I see?? I have an Audio technica MC and I've seen loads of SUT's advertised on ebay and other places and have often been tempted but not fallen into buying one of these things..:scratch:

[Yiangos]

Andrew,a step-up-transformer,as the name implies,is a device that steps-up the signal of a moving coil cartridge to make it work in a mm imput.

[The Grand Wazoo]

Andrew,
Here's something I wrote before in another thread:



....a step-up does the job of boosting the tiny signal from a moving coil cartridge up to a level that a moving magnet phono stage can deal with. It’s a passive component which uses some of the (relatively) abundant current present in the signal from an MC cartridge, converting it into enough voltage (which is not abundant) for the MM stage to work with. This is done by taking advantage of the strange phenomenon of transformers which boosts voltage in proportion to the ratio of the number of turns of wire on its input compared to those on its output.

A step-up is different to a head amp, which uses active (and, therefore, powered) circuitry.

Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages, and wax and wane in their popularity. I tend to agree with the view that a good step-up can have the ability to portray very fine detail and dynamics better than an active device………but, there are some very good active devices out there too.

Click This to get the full bifter (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2907) from the original thread.

[Mike g]

I'm glad someone asked this as i wanted to know what an SUT does... Can I ask 2 follow up questions?

1 can you get a step down transformer (would allow me to use my 10x5 into the mc settings on my p75)?

2 why not just get an mc phonostage instead of something else in the signal path?

[lurcher]

1. Yes, just turn the transformer round
2. But a MC phono stage does involves putting something in the signal path.

MC transformers are normally used with valve phono stages due to the noise floor of most valve stages being too high to directly amplify the signal level of a typical low output MC cart.

[Wakefield Turntables]

many thanks for your answers guys!

[DSJR]

I reckon there's a lot of experimentation needed in the world of FET's for active stages, although I know that ANT Audio has done this (Alex N? also did this with the better Creek phono stages I think).

A decent active stage neededn't mess the sonics up, but the "flavour-change" introduced by a good and well matched SUT may be what is needed to complete the "circuit" in some designs.