Another "jewel" in the house...

[turntable]

Hi Puma

I was only using the SUT inside the EAR 834P. When the Rosewood is on a table, I use the TW Acustik phono (so no SUT), however I am going to give my new old Luxman phono stage with two SUT settings a go soon.

I guess what I was trying to say, you probably will might even better results with your new SUT with a bit of luck.

What model SUT have you bought?

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by turntable

Hi Puma

I was only using the SUT inside the EAR 834P. When the Rosewood is on a table, I use the TW Acustik phono (so no SUT), however I am going to give my new old Luxman phono stage with two SUT settings a go soon.

I guess what I was trying to say, you probably will might even better results with your new SUT with a bit of luck.

What model SUT have you bought?

Shane,
My info below is from a reply I posted in Dan's capacitance loading thread, sorry for cross-posting:

The Urushi Vermilion is one of Koetsu's lowest output designs due to the coil design, at 0.2mV. Acc. to Bob Sattin of Bob' Device's, the step-up on the EAR is not sufficient to get a voltage into the EAR that is in it's optimal functional range for the preamp section. With the Vermilion's 0.2mV output, the 1:10 SUT on the EAR provides 20dB of gain, which gets the voltage coming in to the phono gain stage only to 2.0mV. The RIAA equalization standard is based on a spec of 5.0mV of gain, and the recommendations from articles by reading articles and interviews with Bob Sattin is that you want the input voltage coming into your phono stage to be at a minimum, higher than 2.5mV to avoid S/N problems and no more than 10mV to avoid clipping/headroom problems. The ideal target voltage would be right around the 5 mV per the RIAA spec. With Vermilion, I am 2.5X below that with the step-up ratio of the 1:10 transformers in the EAR. The 1:30 SUT, acc. to an email I got from Bob today, will get my input to 6.0mV.

This from my correspondence with Bob:
"The EAR has a 1:10 step up (20db) which will bring your effective output to 2.0mV which is below the sensitivity floor of the preamp circuitry in the EAR. I personally owned the Urishi Vermillion and it was my cartridge of choice. I was able to try out many SUTs with it. I ended up using the CineMag with it. It works best with 1:30 (30dB) which gives the best balance between voltage output and impedance loading."

As a result, I ordered a Cinemag 1:30 SUT from Bob's Devices (see attached pix). It should be here tomorrow. It has a switch for 1:16 to 1:30, a ground post, and a ground lifting switch.

[turntable]

Puma

Let em know how it sounds after you play with it.

The price is nice and with my vintage Luxman I bought, I am enjoying playing with SUT's again

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by turntable

Puma

Let em know how it sounds after you play with it.

The price is nice and with my vintage Luxman I bought, I am enjoying playing with SUT's again

I just got it today, and will have some pix momentarily. It's pretty nice.

[two dot]

I, too, have recently stepped into the world of SUT's....

I decided to try a A-23 SUT to mate with my EMT cartridge.

Just trying to eak out the last bit of detail and performance of my cartridge.

Stock photo:

From A-23 website

[Puma Cat]

Here's some pix of the Bob's Devices SUT taken with my iPhone 4:





More tonight when I have chance to set it up and listen to it.

[Puma Cat]

I set up the Bob's Devices step-up transformer Friday night, and after some playing around with it, found a very good set-up.

Key to acheiving a good setup was using the correct type of interconnect design. Two pairs of IC's I tried from different mfrs resulted in notable ground hum, fortunately my Zu Mission ICs worked very well. The key to this as best I can determine is to use ICs where the shield is connected to ground at one end of the cable and not connected to ground (but floating) at the other end, as shown from Bob's site.

http://www.bobsdevices.com/diagram.gif

As my Zus worked out well, I am assuming they are of this construction "under the hood". I also found that connecting the ground strap from the phono cable to the ground lug on the SUT worked best.

The other points of note per Bob's directions was to play around with different locations to find the quietest spot, and try to keep the SUT away from other transformers, power suppies, etc. I tried different spots and found that putting it on the shelf the TT is on, away from the phono stage and the pre and power amp worked the best:





I find the 1:30 SUT to be a big improvement over the 1:10 SUT in the EAR. Now with the correct gain going into the phono amplification stage and correct impedance, the sound is more musically rich, fuller, with more weight, more solid imaging with improved spaciousness, better bass and a nice clean top end with just the right amount of sparkle but without glare or edge. W/o the 1:30 SUT the Koetsu was very nice, but a bit rolled off at the very top...very pleasant but not the most open or extended top end I've heard from a cart. With appropriate levels of gain now, I can play at a volume of 30-35 on the preamp, instead of 45-50 that I was having to use with the EAR stage alone.

Overeall, getting the step-up was a big step-up...pun intended. It has the bass, warmth, and weight of my Grado Reference Sonata combined with more detail, resolution, transparency and speed than the Shelter. A nice plus is that the stylus is exceptionally quiet "in the groove". End result, I am very, very happy with the Koetsu Urushi Vermilion.

[cmalak]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

I set up the Bob's Devices step-up transformer Friday night, and after some playing around with it, found a very good set-up.

Key to acheiving a good setup was using the correct type of interconnect design. Two pairs of IC's I tried from different mfrs resulted in notable ground hum, fortunately my Zu Mission ICs worked very well. The key to this as best I can determine is to use ICs where the shield is connected to ground at one end of the cable and not connected to ground (but floating) at the other end, as shown from Bob's site.

http://www.bobsdevices.com/diagram.gif

As my Zus worked out well, I am assuming they are of this construction "under the hood". I also found that connecting the ground strap from the phono cable to the ground lug on the SUT worked best.

The other points of note per Bob's directions was to play around with different locations to find the quietest spot, and try to keep the SUT away from other transformers, power suppies, etc. I tried different spots and found that putting it on the shelf the TT is on, away from the phono stage and the pre and power amp worked the best:





I find the 1:30 SUT to be a big improvement over the 1:10 SUT in the EAR. Now with the correct gain going into the phono amplification stage and correct impedance, the sound is more musically rich, fuller, with more weight, more solid imaging with improved spaciousness, better bass and a nice clean top end with just the right amount of sparkle but without glare or edge. W/o the 1:30 SUT the Koetsu was very nice, but a bit rolled off at the very top...very pleasant but not the most open or extended top end I've heard from a cart. With appropriate levels of gain now, I can play at a volume of 30-35 on the preamp, instead of 45-50 that I was having to use with the EAR stage alone.

Overeall, getting the step-up was a big step-up...pun intended. It has the bass, warmth, and weight of my Grado Reference Sonata combined with more detail, resolution, transparency and speed than the Shelter. A nice plus is that the stylus is exceptionally quiet "in the groove". End result, I am very, very happy with the Koetsu Urushi Vermilion.

Stephen...congrats and nice write-up. Enjoy the new Koetsu cart with Bob's SUT.

[Puma Cat]

Sitting here browsing AA with the iPad 2 listening to a set of Mozart violin concertos by "The Aademy" with the Urushi and have never heard violins reproduced so sweetly.

Wonderful.