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Moving coil transformers are intended to mate low or mid output MC pickups with normal phono inputs on a amplifier or on other RIAA preamps that only support Moving Magnet or mid/high output MC pickups, most phono inputs on amplifiers and many phonostages do not have the capability to handle low output/impedance MC's so if you intend to use such a pickup either check if your amp/phono stage supports one before you buy that kind of a pickup, or budget for a transformer as well. Also many RIAA preamps simply do not have wide enough variability of impedance or amplification to handle some pickups especially very low output models. Electronic MC pre-preamplifiers have never been as popular or plentiful on the market as transformers but there is a certain group of people that can't stand the sound of trannies and some of these electronic amps are rather good. The correct name for a prepreamp is actually Head Amplifier but it should not be confused with tape head amplifiers.
Air Tight
Makes the ATH-2 Step up transformer.
Althea Música
Manufatures the Imperial Transformer which is a high end unit that allows you to switch between 20 and 26dB of gain, more info here.
Audio Experience
This company makes the only headamp driven by therminionc vales that I am avare of on the market today, namely the Solo, it actually has exellent audio specifications despite the glassware and the price is very reasonable all things considered but it has a fixed gain and impedance of only 20dB and 100 ohms respectivly.
Audio Note/Kondo
Makes the AN-S6cz transformer, it's made out of a range of exotic materials and both input impedance and output load are variable, and you can switch between balanced and single ended operation.
Audio Note UK Ltd.
Makes the AN-CD and the AN7D silver wired transformers (those are expensive BTW), those are based on older Audio Note/Kondo designs, the company also offers the more realistically priced ANS-1, ANS-2 and the ANS-3 transformers.
Benz Micro
Makes at the least one transformer : the PP-1.
Bartolucci Transformers
Component manufacturer that manufactures a range of MC step up transformers that you can integrate into an amp or a DIY project.
Bent Audio
Makes the MU Step-up transormer, this is a mono unit that is shiped in pairs, gain is (optionally) switchable from 14 to 26dB and while loading is not configurable the company sells a resistor package for those who need more flexible loading, the unit is also available in kit form.
DaVinci Audio
Makes the Grandezza transformer, expensive, selectable 20 or 26db gain, etc..
Denon
Makes 2 transformers intended to mate with their own Denon Pickups, the AU-S1 is a high end model that is intended to mate with the company's high end, low output models such like the Denon DL-S1 and weighs in at a whopping 3,2 Kg and has a price tag to match, while the AU-300LC is a very keenly priced model that has a slightly lower gain and is intended to mate with their low/mid output MC models, neither of those designs appears to be distributed outside of Asia, but you can find more info here.
Docet-Lector
This Italian maker has the MM70 Pre-pre which is basically their MM70 MC design with the RIAA preamplification section removed, the total gain is 23dB which means that while it will work with most MC designs it will not work with some very low output pickups, it also has a fixed impedance of 150 ohms. Going a bit more upmarket they have the valve based .
Dynavector
Makes the PHA-100 head amp, impedance is switchable from the 4 to 7 ohm range to 30 to 40 ohm range. Use of a modern op-amp as the main active component means it's very quiet.
Esoteric Audio Research - Yoshino (EAR)
Makes the MC3 transformer with switchable impedance and gain.
Graham Slee Projects
Makes the Elevator EXP which is a high end electronic design that offers 24dB gain and switchable resistance and capacitance options, more info on that model can be found here, the company also has recently introduced a cheape version in the form of the Elevator Fanfare but when this was written there was no real information avalable on that model.
Hi-Fi Club
Makes a Moving Coil amplifier that allows you to connect a low output MC to a phono input.
Ortofon
Makes 3 transformers, the high end T-3000 that has thorodial core wound with silver shielded permalloy wire and sports some serious specifications and accepts cartridges with 2 to 10 ohm impedance, the "budget" T20 MK II that also has is a thorodial but features a cheaper copper shielded wiring, and finally the company makes one transformer specially designed for the SPU line of MC's named SPU TG100.
Rothwell
Makes the aptly named Moving Coil Transformer which has 24dB gain which the company says makes it best suitable for pickups with 0,3 to 0,6mV output.
Shindo Labratory
Makes a high end transformer called Arome.
Yamamoto Sound Craft
Makes the SUT-01, a high end model that was introduced recently.
YBA
Makes the MC Module transformer but does not appear to publish any specifications.
ZYX
Has 2 high end transformers, the TPM 1 and the TPM 1000, both have an excellent reputation.
Discontinued Moving Coil Transformers & Head Amps
Older models of MC transformers are ...erm ... old MC transformers ...how can I put this, there has not been a great change in the quality of transformers over the last 50 years or more, there has been a gradual move towards better materials and a slight improvement in design and winding techniques but nothing similar to the series of revolutions that we have seen with electronics in general, so basically the only difference between a new MC transformer and an old model may be down to the effects of ageing and the fact that modern MC pickups generally have slightly different characteristics than they generally had a few decades back, thus mating an old transformer with a new pickup or the other way around may not result in a perfect match. All transformers and wound transducers suffer from magnetic build-up and other gradual changes that affect the characteristics of the units with the passage of time, mind you the effect is not always negative and for electric transformers it's nothing that will have a great effect on the performance but on audio transformers the effect will be noticeable over decades, this can often be rectified by rewinding or demagnetisation, some manufacturer such as Ortofon will rewind old transformers for you and there are also workshops that will perform this work, make sure to find a workshop that has specialist knowledge of audio trannies, I have sent an audio transformer to an general workshop and got back an unusable unit. Still if it's only a is 10 or 15 years old unit you should not bother, but some of the transformers on the market are 40 years old or more (I have seen Thordarson trannies from the 20's advertised on Ebay as "almost new, little used").
Apart from this the only change that have been seen for the last 40 years or so is the change from fixed impedance models to variable impedance models, most of the old fixed impedance models were sold as single transformers housed in a simple metal cans that hi-fi stores, radio outfitters and mixer manufacturers etc. then integrated into mixing decks, turntable bases or amplifiers and so on. Most modern transformers are generally pairs fitted into separate boxes however and a large portion of them are variable impedance, it should be noted though that there is quite a difference between the sound of transformers, especially between a high quality one and a low quality were you can hear the difference quite easily but it's often not as pronounced as between head amps or other pieces of active electronics. As for head amplifiers you are well advised to stay away from anything much older than 15 - 20 years old or so, the advancements in opamp technology have been so great that listening to a 20 year old model and a modern one side by side is a revealing experience, and makes you wonder why you never noticed all that noise before.
Audio Innovations
Made the Series 1000 step up transformer in the 90's, has a toggle for high/low impedance.
A & R Cambridge (ARCAM)
Made the HA10 head amp in the 80's, it came without a power supply (12v, I think some of their amps had such an output) and sounds slightly noisy compared to modern units.
Cotter
Made the MK2L step up transformer in the 80's, has a great reputation in the USA for it's warm sound but it sounds a bit dated compared to some modern European and Japanese alternatives, this model is popularly know as the L type but there was also a P type that we have not been able to find any info on.
Denon
Made the AU-310 transformer, it's a unusually small standalone model.
Dynavector
Introduced the PE-1 electronic MC amplifiers in the mid 80's and it was manufactured up until 2000 when it was replaced by the current PHA-100 model. Critically acclaimed in it's day but it should be noted that it's a bit noisier than the current model.
Electro Sonic Laboratories (ESL)
Shipped mono transformers (encapsulated in rather sexy bakelite) for their mono MC broadcast carts in the early 50's, historical curiosities by now.
Fidelity Research
Had a range of step up transformers one of the nicer ones was the FRT-5 that unusually enough sported 3 inputs that could each have a different setting thus enabling you to have 3 different carts connected to your amp. Another model is the XF-1 it has an input impedance of 4 to 18 Ohms and gain is 30db so the unit is thus only useable with medium impedance carts such as the ones from Fidelity Research itself. This was considered to be a quite good units in it's day (early to mid 80's). The company also had at the least one model of a battery powered head amp that seems to bear no name but the specs are : Gain 24dB, Impedance 100-ohm, output impedance 47k-ohm, Frequency Response 20-20,000Hz. This model seems to have been designed specifically for use with FR pickups since the gain and impedance are not selectable.
Fidelix
Made the battery powered LN-1 MC pre-preamplifier, it had a switchable gain of 26 or 32 db and 2 input channels.
FM Acoustics
Made the FM 212 Reference head amp that was considered to be the bees knees a few years back, has a input impedance switchable between 12, 50 and 100 ohm's, meant to be driven from a 9v source off a FM preamplifier, the company no longer makes the power supply that was meant to go with this amp but one of their newer models may work, or any 9v capable audiophile grade supply come to that.
JVC
Made the MC-T100 step up transformer. Specs : Gain: 1:10 (20dB). Optimum input impedance: 30 Ohms (20 > 40 Ohms). Optimum load impedance: 47k Ohms > 100k Ohms. Distortion: 0.0035% at 1kHz, 200mV output. Separation: 97dB at 1kHz..
Mark Levinson
Made the battery driven JC-1AC head amplifier in the 70's, you can find more info on it here, despite the praise it's given on that page it should be noted that it's way outdated and it's original designer has even come out recently to say he would not use it under any circumstance.
Mayware
Made the T24 in the early 80's, a keenly priced low ratio model.
McIntosh
Made an electronic head amplifier in the 80's designed to mate with their MC pickups, it's not suitable for all MC's though, more info here.
Ortofon
The predecessor to the current high end T-3000 model was the T-30, we believe it was introduced in 1982 or 3 and was in production well into the 90's. It featured switchable impedance from 3 to 48 ohms. Size is 4x8x14,2 cm. Another sought after model is the T-5, these are tiny units with male phonoplugs on one end and a female on the other that are best put on the end of your cable and directly into the phono stage/amp, this unit will work with impedances from 3 to 40ohms. Some owners of Ortofon SPU carts absolutely swear by the old JS series of transformers that the company sold in the 60's and seventies (it was made by another Danish company Jørgen Schou), they were considered very good in their day but it should also be noted that you can send the to the factory for and update and a rewind (according to reports this is really a worthwhile thing to do), note that they will of course work with any other pickup that matches the SPU impedance characteristics but that the unit most often seen on the second hand market is the 0,32M type and that unit has a low ratio of 1:10, fine for SPU's and sensitive inputs but not enough for many others pickups and not enough for many phono inputs. Ortofon also had other models on the market in the 60's and 70's such as the stereo T-6600, the MCA-76 and the budget STM-72 but I have preciously little info on them, the T-20 how ever is very similar to the current MKII 2 model but features slightly inferior specs.
Sony
Had the HA-T10 transformers, this is exactly the same unit as the Ortofon T-5 listed here above.
Thorens - Restek
Made the MCA-5 tranny (in the 90's I believe), impedance is switchable between 30, 200 and 1000 Ohm's.
Uesugi Brothers (U*Bros)
Has made quite a few models including the high end 5-L from ca the early 80, much sought after in Japan and comes in at some 15kg.
Next Page : Discontinued RIAA Preamps