Which MC SUT?

[Ammonite Audio]

I have decided that I do need to treat myself to a new SUT when I get home. My Bob's Devices Cinemag SUT is great for what it costs, but I have heard Martin's Choir Audio Hashimoto HM7 SUT and life was not really the same afterwards. It was very good.

That ought to point towards an easy choice, since the Choir Audio SUT is fairly priced and is a known entity; however I rather like the idea of the Music First SUT, which has a bit more flexibility in terms of gain and loading, although at a higher price point than Choir's SUT (even taking into account import duty and VAT).

I can, of course, try the Music First SUT at home, but I'd be interested to hear comments from anyone who has experience with this SUT, particularly with Ortofon or Benz low output MC cartridges.

A wildcard option is to go DIY, perhaps employing Audio Note transformers, but I'm not sure that I have the patience and skills required to implement them properly.

Thoughts, anyone?

[MartinT]

Hugo, why don't you home loan the Music First SUT and I could bring the Choir SUT-H7 around for a comparison if you like?

[Marco]

Hi Hugo,

Martin's Hashimotos are very good indeed, and they certainly get the thumbs up from me. However, IME, the secret to success with an SUT is in achieving synergy, sonically, with the partnering cartridge - and that means finding the ideal match.

Martin was lucky that he happened to hit upon such synergy, between his Shelter 5000 and the H7, but there's nothing to say that the same will apply with your Ortofon (Kontrapunkt B?) unless you've listened to your T/T, with that cartridge, in Martin's system? That principle also applies with the Music First unit, which you're considering. Who knows which cartridge will provide the idea balance with it, sonically? It's a bit of a lottery....

In my view, one of the easiest ways of achieving the desired synergy is to use a cartridge and SUT from the same manufacturer. That way, you get the benefits of them both being designed (and voiced) together from the ground up...

It's not simply about electrical matching, but more importantly the respective 'sonic signatures' of the cartridge, and the transformers used in the SUT, synergising together, in order to achieve the right sound balance. The last thing you want is an inherently toppy sounding SUT, paired with a similarly voiced cartridge (or the opposite), and no amount of fiddling with gain or loading values will cure such a fundamental imbalance.

With my extensive experimenting recently with various SUT, before settling on the Ortofon, I found this aspect of 'voicing' the SUT to the cartridge, out with of more prosaic considerations, such as gain and loading, absolutely crucial to achieving the most musical sounding results. Since you have an Ortofon cartridge, I would urge you to consider Ortofon's own top-of-the-range SUT, the ST-80SE, which I myself use:











Trust me, it sounds absolutely fabulous with my SPU, and also a Cadenza Bronze, I've heard it with, and I suspect that your own Ortofon cartridge would love it, too. Anyway, it's just another option for you to consider. If you fancy popping up for a listen, when you get back home, just let me know

Marco.

[The Grand Wazoo]

I've heard the Music First unit & compared it to Bent Audio Mu's which were also made with S&B transformers. My opinion was that it's flexibility was it's biggest downfall. The Bents are set to what you need them to be (though you can change things if you need to), whereas the MF's switched facilities hobbled the thing badly.

[Marco]

That's a very good point, Chris, which again is why I prefer SUTs 'set' for use with a specific MC cartridge, where results obtained are goverened almost entirely by the inherent characteristics of the transformers themselves. It's a 'source-first', hard-wired approach, that in my experience, works very well.

That way, you remove various breaks in the signal path, introduced by the use of dip-switches, for adjustment of variable gain and loading - the effect of which is significant, in terms of loss of integrity, when one is dealing with such minute voltages from low-output MC cartridges.

I'll always go with the 'purist' approach! However, that said, it doesn't seem to hold back Martin's H7 or his Whest, both of which feature the use of dip-switches. I guess that their design is just very well implemented!

Marco.

[The Grand Wazoo]

It's a real shame that S&B stopped supplying John Chapman with their trannies because the Mu's are just brilliant.

[Ammonite Audio]

Thanks for the comments, particularly about the MF SUT's potential switching losses. Analogue Seduction sell both the MF and Ortofon SUTs, so I may be able to try both. I'd not thought about the Ortofon, which is probably a good match for both my Kontrapunkt B, Rohmann and indeed the brand new Benz Wood SL that I bought before departing overseas.

And, of course, there's Martin's offer of trying his Choir Audio SUT in my system.

This is going to be fun!

[Marco]

Hi Hugo,

If you must use Analogue Seduction, then by all means do so. There's someone else, however, I've used that I can highly recommend.

Btw, there's no problem for me to loan you my ST-80SE, so you can compare it with the others!

Marco.

[chris@panteg]

That's a very good point, Chris, which again is why I prefer SUTs 'set' for use with a specific MC cartridge, where results obtained are goverened almost entirely by the inherent characteristics of the transformers themselves. It's a 'source-first', hard-wired approach that, in my experience, works very well.

That way, you remove various breaks in the signal path, introduced by the use of dip-switches, for adjustment of variable gain and loading - the effect of which is significant, in terms of loss of integrity, when one is dealing with such minute voltages from low-output MC cartridges.

I'll always go with the 'purist' approach! However, that said, it doesn't seem to hold back Martin's H7 or his Whest, both of which feature the use of dip-switches. I guess that they're just very well executed!

Marco.

Hi Marco

You might be interested to know I had a powerful demonstration of the merrits of matching an SUT to a cartridge yesterday !

My friend John has just traded in his AI 1000 pre and 2nd audios with BP psu's for a Diavolo integrated 300b SE , but is temporarily without a phono stage , so I took mine round with some Mark Grant cables .

After trying the IO into the 33 ohm input of my Diablo with very nice results ! We then plumbed in the AI 1000 SUT which is optimized for the IO and bingo ! Eureka ! Knocked me sideways , it sounded joyous !

[chris@panteg]

If it's ok to say this ? The Diavolo is marvelous ! Think I'm in love with it , John is one happy chappy .