Icon Audio MCTX Moving Coil step up transformer

Designed to complement any Moving Magnet Phono Pre-amplifier

The MC TX is perfect for those who want to change from Moving Magnet to Moving Coil without the hassle of changing equipment. Just plug in between your turntable and phono stage nearly any MC will be matched to your amplifier.

Designed to get the best out of your moving coil cartridge as used in our PS1 and PS3 phono pre-amplifiers, we found that many customers were asking for these transformers in a “stand alone” box that could be used with any phono pre-amplifiers.

The MCTX Story

“Some years ago when I was buyer for a hi fi retailer, I was fortunate enough to be invited on a factory visit to a well know pick up manufacturer in Denmark. The visit included various seminars about the manufacture and how to get the best performance from pickups. I came away having learned two very important lessons”:

I, MM cartridges have a serious flaw which is hard to counter, in that at high frequencies they tend to resonate adding to distortion and noise. One of the reasons why Moving Coil sounds better.

2, Moving Coil cartridges sound better through a transformer, rather than a step-up amp (or stage). This is because the impedance and gain characteristics of a transformer are so well suited to the job. Also they are noise free, and have very low distortion and hum.



Some phono pre-amplifiers have a moving coil (MC) x5 pre-amp fitted, but the results of these can be disappointing as they are usually an extra low cost microchip stage which adds noise and make the sound mechanical and uninteresting. Whereas a good quality transformer will add nothing, whilst giving a true interpretation of the original sound.

Solid construction is important for protection against noise and vibration.

We use high quality transformers using the best low oxygen copper, made into extremely thin wire, and hand wind the coils onto the rare earth metal formers. These are triple screened using Mu metal for minimum hum pickup. These are mounted on a stainless steel and alloy chassis using high quality gold plated terminals.

Your current pre-amp or phono stage may well have the common “one chip” solution to get the extra gain for moving coil cartridges, but this can be disappointing as transformers sound so much better although the cost is higher.

Automatic matching.

It is well known although not widely discussed that the impedance of a transformer varies with load, this means that to large degree most popular MC cartridges no not need any external adjustment to work correctly.

Only a well made transformer can give the organic interaction that takes place between your expensive pickup and your pre-amplifier.


All hand wired point to point
No printed circuit board to ‘colour’ sound
Suitable for pickups requiring 10 – 500 Ohms
Low output impedance
Matching pre amp 47k (30-100K)
“By Pass” switch for MM cartridges
Gain = x10/20dB (x1 for “by pass”)
Signal to noise level -90db
Frequency response 10hz to 20khz –1db
Silver PTFE audio cable
Gold plated Input & output terminals
One line input/line output
Transformers made in England