Sut?

[mulveling]

Originally Posted by mtroo

Is the SUT in addition to a dedicated phono stage?
Thanks.

Yes, you would typically run from a SUT into an MM phono stage with loading set to 47K and as close to 0 capacitance and as short a cable as possible; any capacitance from the cable or MM stage input gets multiplied by the SUT ratio and reflected back to the cartridge. Running from a SUT into an MC stage can cause all kinds of issues, so don't do that -- you may be surprised that in many cases this actually results in too LITTLE gain, due to the huge signal losses from the resulting voltage divider (and those huge losses definitely happen if your run one SUT into a 2nd SUT then into the phono stage).

The issue is confused a bit because many tube MC phono stages will use in-box SUTs for their MC mode. As usual, switch to MM mode to use an outboard SUT.

SUTs can work great with either tube or solid-state MM stages, but they're a particular favorite with tubes because the (relatively) noiseless high gain they provide can help counteract the higher noise floor of tube stages. I.e. you can run your preamp at a lower volume level for the same net system SPL level, but now with proportionally less noise floor contribution from your tube stage.