MCX moving coil step-up transformer

This step-up transformer uses the same high quality cores as used in the MCL, again supplied by Lundahl of Sweden, but features a lower turns ratio than the MCL to accommodate cartridges with higher outputs. The turns ratio of the MCX is 1:10, making it compatible with cartridges with outputs of up to 0.9mV, which includes models from Benz Micro, Clearaudio, Koetsu, Lyra and Van den Hul.
It features very wide bandwidth, low distortion and carefully designed primary and secondary loading networks to optimise the performance and give beautifully reproduced transients, free from ringing. The core materials and winding techniques employed in the manufacture are unsurpassed and feature multiple primary and secondary windings configured to cancel hum pickup from external sources as well as minimise inter-winding capacitance and maximise bandwidth. The step-up ratio of 1:10 makes the MCX is compatible with a large selection of moving coil cartridges available today from makers such as Benz Micro, Clearaudio, Lyra, Koetsu, Ortofon, Audio Technica etc., but is particularly suited to cartridges with higher than average outputs, those in the range 0.6mV to 0.9mV. 

The MCL is a step-up transformer designed to raise the output of moving coil cartridges up to a level compatible with moving magnet phonostages. The purpose is not simply to allow moving coil cartridges to be used with moving magnet only phonostages (which most valve designs are, for example), but to allow moving coil cartridges the chance to realise their full potential. Transformers have much more benign distortion characteristics than active circuits and they are capable of producing a truly sublime soundstage with detail and separation unsurpassed by the more common transistor and op-amp alternatives. Don't be misled that transformers are an audio anachronism long since made obsolete by the wonders of modern solid state technology - they're not. The reason that they are so rarely seen nowadays is that transformers are incredibly expensive compared to transistors and chips. A complete moving coil compatible phonostage is obviously more convenient than a separate transformer and moving magnet phonostage, and a moving coil phonostage made entirely with solid state circuitry is considerably cheaper to produce than one with transformers, hence the rarity of moving coil step-up transformers. This is shame because many audiophiles have never even heard a transformer coupled moving coil cartridge and don't know how good it can sound.

specifications

turns ratio  1:10
voltage gain  20dB (x10)
core material  cobalt based uncut amorphous strip
input impedance*  100 ohms
optimum load impedance**  47k + 150pF
bandwidth  8Hz - 75kHz (+0/-3dB)
cartridge compatibility (o/p)  0.35mV - 0.9mV
cartridge compatibility (imp.)  internal impedance <20 ohms
dimensions  60 x 155 x 92 mm
weight  580g

*This is the load presented to the cartridge.
**This is the optimum load for the transformer, ie the input impedance of the phonostage that the MC1 feeds into