Moving Coil Step Up Devices

gamve

Journeyman
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
446
Location
Tasmania, Australia
#1
Interested to know what ppl are using and why and with what.
I have a variety including passive transformers and active units
as well as a good phono stage built into an integrated amp.
Will kick off with some pictures and descriptions later.
 

gamve

Journeyman
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
446
Location
Tasmania, Australia
#2
This is one hell of a transformer from Ortofon. Pictures are from the web but I have one identical. Bit of a story on this one. Friend game me one years ago and not knowing what it was or what to do with it, much less it's value, I gave it to another friend who then kindly showed me what to do with it :oops: He had it hooked up with a Townshend rock the same as mine......Bugger
It then took me three years to find another one, and yes it cost a bomb.
The thing weighs 3-4 kg has a cast body for shielding and has silver wound coils with 35db gain. Impedance suits 3ohm cartridges so I use it from time to time with a Koetsu black and a ZYX Airy III. Mine tends to be a bit noisy because of grounding problems. A bit of wire shaped to touch the ground and the LH interconect metal body makes it silent. It is usable as it is but I will fix the grounding problems and upgrade the RCA's with some new CMC Silver alloy RCA's I brought a while ago and some re soldering.









If you ever see one of these for sale at a reasonable price (under a grand) grab it with both hands.
 

stuwee

Flying the Vista Cruiser up there... RIP
Joined
Jun 12, 2010
Messages
8,382
Location
Deep in the Sonoran Desert SW
#3
gamve, that Ortofon is a piece of art and beauty, gotta love the Danes....btw, when I bought my Thorens/SME rig in 1977, it had an Ortofon silver bullitt cart on it, round cyndrical body clear stylus nose tip, looked like a missle, my baby sis dropped it on the grooved Thorens mat and bent the cantilever, I couldn't find a replacement so I threw it away, but what a MM cart that was, I replaced it with a Grace F9E (another MM), sorry to go off topic, I've only used built in MC pre amps (Sanyo A35, SAE P102) for my only MC cart, the AQ 404, damn things are too heavy for my SME arm, I love the sound tho :cherry:
 

gamve

Journeyman
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
446
Location
Tasmania, Australia
#4
I had this MC Phono stage custom built by a very talented designer and builder in the UK. The circuit is based on the Naim Phono S style boards. Its a two box arrangement keeping the power supply away from the phono stage.







RCA's far right are the inputs. The middle set are the normal output and the left set are buffered.
Power supply shown below. Triple rectification !!!







Have only had this unit for a short while. Sound is very very good and very musical. I need to do some work on the grounding of the Turntable as there is a bit of hum to contend with. I suspect the turntable body need grounding as well as the tonearm.
 
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