Hiss on Phono

[f1eng]

I'm running an MC and yes, there is some hiss which can be clearly heard if the amp is turned up to say 0dB, which is a lot higher than I normally run.  I think this is probably to be expected when you consider the huge amount of gain involved.  I must admit that I don't like the idea of a step up transformer, something else in the signal path as it were.  However, reading the posts above, and considering transformers are not far off 100% efficient, I think this is an option well worth exploring.

In a conventional phono stage there is normally an active amplifier before the RIAA stage in the mc input which isn't used  with MM. Personally I prefer a transformer to the active stage, though I do not know why... I have used one (or a phono stage with built in transformer) rather than gain stage on and off for the last 30 years or so.
With the Devialet this may be different. I didn't ask Mathieu (who designed the D-Premier phono stage). I presume there will be some sort of active amp to get the level in the right ballpark for the adc, and if so the gain will be much higher when configured for mc.

Actually, stupidly enough, the reason I ended up using the SUT with the Devialet (I had used the mc input of my Goldmund PH2) was to do with cables
The Goldmund T3f arm has proprietary connectors and the cable did not reach to the Devialet. Using the SUT between them gave me more distance so I could put the amp where I wanted it, and it sounded really good to me so I stuck with it.
I have moved stuff around now, so I could try again direct - if I could be bothered to do that rather than enjoying listening to some music.