Thrax – Trajan, adaptable step-up transformer

There are many great phonostages that can take advantage of the ultra high tech transformers at the core of this unit. As most MM phono preamplifiers have no loading settings at their input. This limits the capabilities to match the cartridges in use to their standard 47kOhm input. To alleviate this problem we have added selectable loading in the step-up transformer, so even a vintage tube phonostage can be used in optimal conditions with multiple MC modern cartridges.

Trajan offers two different step up ratios to make it truly universal. A ratio of 1:10 for cartridges with output above 0.35mV and a ratio of 1:20 for low output cartridges with less then 0.3mV output. At the different step up ratios there are four different loading options.
Trajan uses a core with the lowest magnetostriction and highest permeability available. This reduces the amount of turns needed and as consequence the internal resistance, capacitance and losses of the transformer. Furthermore the LITZ wire primary allows for very low DC resistance without any eddy current loss.

The resistance of the coils in a transformer are a source of noise added to the cartridge. The noise figure of Trajan is among the best you can get, bringing significant advantage to most modern MM solid state phonostages when coupled with very low impedance cartridges.

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