Having recently upgraded my cartridge (from a Transfiguration Spirit 3 to a Transfiguration Temper V) I started to look into the possible advantages of adding a step-up-transformer (SUT) to my EAR 834P phonostage. I had never considered an SUT before and always thought that a good phonostage was all anyone ever needed. My interest was piqued by a thread that Rabski started a few months back when he added an SUT between his Tranfiguration cartridge and EAR 834P phonostage:
http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread.php?57186-SUTs
The more I read on the subject the more I became convinced so I managed to secure a home loan of a Silvercore 1-to-10 SUT from Deco Audio (great service from Peter). Then today I went over to Rabski's and brought back his SUT (many thanks Richard) to try in my system and compare with the Silvercore. I have now spent several hours swapping them over and have come to some conclusions:
The Silvercore 1-to-10 is a German made SUT and retails at £450. It is housed in a lovely stainless steel box (Peter at Deco says stainless steel was chosen as it is non-ferrous which has much better screening properties than aluminium or copper which helps keep it quiet). As it's name implies it has a 10 to 1 step up ratio. Upon installing it between my cartridge and phonostage there was a very obvious and immediate increase in clarity and a greater ease and flow to sound. Bass was firmer and faster and to be honest I was suprised just how big an improvement it brought.
If Rabski hadn't been kind enough to offer me a loan of his unit I would certainly have been very happy to purchase a Silvercore.
This morning I took Nick (myrman) over to Rabski's (on the way I tried to convince Nick that he needed an SUT). Rabski made his SUT himself using high quality Japanese transformers made by Hashimoto (HM-3). The transformers alone cost about £500-600 to get to the UK, and he then wired it up with high quality AudioNote cable. I guess if this were a commercial design it would retail at about £1250-1500, so 3 times the price of the Silvercore.
He demonstrated to us the difference in his sytem of having his SUT in place or not - the difference was absolutley massive :shock: Having heard the full set-up first, the removal of the SUT just made the sound collapse into a hole - in comparison it was flat, lifeless and bland.
Back to my system, and installing Rabski's SUT just gave me a bit more of everything compared to the Silvercore It didn't embarrass the Silvercore at all, but, as expected, the sense of air and space was even greater, it had more delicacy and poise, better seperation and increased detail. Rabski's SUT has a 20 to 1 ratio which in theory should suit my cartridge a little better as well.
I'm now going to have to think long and hard about how to move forward. Silvercore make a much higher spec (and much higher priced) SUT which Peter at Deco has said I may be able to borrow when they get some stock in a few weeks. Alternativley I will have to source some Hashimoto transformers and see if I can get something made up with the help of some highly skilled wammers (I already have some offers of help which I am extremely grateful for:^). In the meantime I will have to go back to connecting my cartridge directly to the MC input of my EAR phonostage
If this whole episode has told me one thing it's that if you have a 'high-end' low ouptut moving coil, then no matter how good your phonostage, you aren't getting the best out of it if you don't use a high quality SUT. :^
Heres a piece of prose explaining why an SUT is way better than just using a phonostage:
Why Use a Transformer?
I’m aware that my Whest Audio PS.30R phono preamp is capable of taking low output MC cartridges directly, and has flexible loading and gain controls for just this purpose. However, the whole reason for the existence of step-up transformers, and their apparent complexity due to yet another device introduced into the replay chain, is that they sound so incredibly vivid and dynamic when compared with active MC inputs. They also don’t generate much additional noise due to a lack of any active components. I believe that impedance matching is the key; furthermore, a transformer is able to utilise the whole energy output of the cartridge, which is generates high current at very low voltage into a higher voltage signal suitable for a standard phono stage. A phono preamp’s MC stage throws away the cartridge’s current generation (with the notable exception of the Dynavector’s P-75 phono enhancer mode) and starts from a tiny voltage. It is this whole energy preservation in a SUT, something top end MC cartridges have in abundance, that creates such excitement and dynamic prowess in their music making and sets high end vinyl playback aside from any other source.
http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread.php?57186-SUTs
The more I read on the subject the more I became convinced so I managed to secure a home loan of a Silvercore 1-to-10 SUT from Deco Audio (great service from Peter). Then today I went over to Rabski's and brought back his SUT (many thanks Richard) to try in my system and compare with the Silvercore. I have now spent several hours swapping them over and have come to some conclusions:
The Silvercore 1-to-10 is a German made SUT and retails at £450. It is housed in a lovely stainless steel box (Peter at Deco says stainless steel was chosen as it is non-ferrous which has much better screening properties than aluminium or copper which helps keep it quiet). As it's name implies it has a 10 to 1 step up ratio. Upon installing it between my cartridge and phonostage there was a very obvious and immediate increase in clarity and a greater ease and flow to sound. Bass was firmer and faster and to be honest I was suprised just how big an improvement it brought.
If Rabski hadn't been kind enough to offer me a loan of his unit I would certainly have been very happy to purchase a Silvercore.This morning I took Nick (myrman) over to Rabski's (on the way I tried to convince Nick that he needed an SUT
). Rabski made his SUT himself using high quality Japanese transformers made by Hashimoto (HM-3). The transformers alone cost about £500-600 to get to the UK, and he then wired it up with high quality AudioNote cable. I guess if this were a commercial design it would retail at about £1250-1500, so 3 times the price of the Silvercore.He demonstrated to us the difference in his sytem of having his SUT in place or not - the difference was absolutley massive :shock: Having heard the full set-up first, the removal of the SUT just made the sound collapse into a hole - in comparison it was flat, lifeless and bland.
Back to my system, and installing Rabski's SUT just gave me a bit more of everything compared to the Silvercore
It didn't embarrass the Silvercore at all, but, as expected, the sense of air and space was even greater, it had more delicacy and poise, better seperation and increased detail. Rabski's SUT has a 20 to 1 ratio which in theory should suit my cartridge a little better as well.I'm now going to have to think long and hard about how to move forward. Silvercore make a much higher spec (and much higher priced) SUT which Peter at Deco has said I may be able to borrow when they get some stock in a few weeks. Alternativley I will have to source some Hashimoto transformers and see if I can get something made up with the help of some highly skilled wammers (I already have some offers of help which I am extremely grateful for:^). In the meantime I will have to go back to connecting my cartridge directly to the MC input of my EAR phonostage
If this whole episode has told me one thing it's that if you have a 'high-end' low ouptut moving coil, then no matter how good your phonostage, you aren't getting the best out of it if you don't use a high quality SUT. :^
Heres a piece of prose explaining why an SUT is way better than just using a phonostage:
Why Use a Transformer?
I’m aware that my Whest Audio PS.30R phono preamp is capable of taking low output MC cartridges directly, and has flexible loading and gain controls for just this purpose. However, the whole reason for the existence of step-up transformers, and their apparent complexity due to yet another device introduced into the replay chain, is that they sound so incredibly vivid and dynamic when compared with active MC inputs. They also don’t generate much additional noise due to a lack of any active components. I believe that impedance matching is the key; furthermore, a transformer is able to utilise the whole energy output of the cartridge, which is generates high current at very low voltage into a higher voltage signal suitable for a standard phono stage. A phono preamp’s MC stage throws away the cartridge’s current generation (with the notable exception of the Dynavector’s P-75 phono enhancer mode) and starts from a tiny voltage. It is this whole energy preservation in a SUT, something top end MC cartridges have in abundance, that creates such excitement and dynamic prowess in their music making and sets high end vinyl playback aside from any other source.
