pulinap

Separate volume controls PITA....! I have set them up to my listening levels and use the mute button.....

It is still a bargain for the price..... Once in a while pre-loved ones surface on SNA

I would highly recommend this: https://www.osbornloudspeakers.com.au/rt-1-rt-2 Built like a tank with transformer volumes.....

Nope I think it is ST600. Probably not a unipivot.... They used to sell it with their top of the line TT. There are some old reviews on net.

If you can find the older Consonance unipivot.... They stopped manufacturing it as it was too extensive to make at that selling price...a bargain.

Valab LRC......

Amari RW600

Problem with Rega is you have limited choice of arms...hence limited choise of carts. Look beyond popular brands....there are plenty of better alternatives including arms, carts and Phonostages....

Better than vintage 300B

But the secondary (as per the diagram) is not connected to earth/ground...? As mentioned elsewhere...I read a post by John Swenson: (emphasis mine) The basics go like this: in normal house wiring a dangerous fault is when hot comes in contact with metal chasis, if part of you touches the chassis and some other part of you contacts some ground point, dangerous current can flow through you. The first solution to this was the safety ground wire, when the hot in the device touches the chassis a large current flows through the ground wire, tripping the breaker in the panel. This works if there is a very good short which supports enough current to trip the breaker. If the short is a weak one, you can still have current through you, but there will not be enough current through the breaker to trip it. Thus GFCI. It monitors the current through the two legs (hot and neutral), in normal operation the current is balanced, the same amount on each wire. The GFCI detects a situation where a small amount of current takes a "sneak path", from one of the wires, potentially through you, that goes to ground, thus the current on the hot and neutral are NOT the same. When this happens the GFCI shuts the circuit down. So now lets look at how this works with an isolation transformer. The voltage on the secondary is not connected to the input wire at all, or the ground. They are separate. It's like a battery. You can touch either wire from the secondary (I'll call them Sa and Sb) to the safety ground, any other ground point, either original hot or neutral, a ground rod, ANYTHING, and nothing happens. (not quite strictly speaking true, with the low capacitance ones we are talking about a little bit of leakage current will flow, usually less than a micro amp). This is important, a direct short to ground causes nothing to happen. If you are part of that connection, again, nothing happens. As to a GFCI, it works by detecting differences between current in the two wires going through it. Since connection to anything else will not cause a current to flow, the currents coming out of the secondary will ALWAYS be the same so a GFCI will NEVER trip, so it is completely useless in this system. There is ONE case where you can get injurious current, it takes TWO opposite faults. You have two devices with metal chassis, which are NOT connected to a common safety ground. One has a short from Sa to chassis and the other has a short from Sb to different chassis, if you touch both chassis you will have line voltage between them. If they are connected to a common safety ground, large current will flow through that ground which might trip a breaker. So overall quite safe, GFCIs do absolutely nothing, so you don't need one, period. If no sneak path can exist the current is always balanced so a GFCI will not ever trip, so it is not protecting against anything. I hope that makes some sort of sense. This is a quick response without diagrams which I hope makes some sense. If anyone wants to test this to make sure I'm not blowing wind here, try it with a low voltage transformer. Take say a 1A 120V:6.3V transformer, connect it to a three prong plug, primary wires to the hot and neutral, leave the safety ground unconnected. Tape up one of the secondary wires so you don't accidentally short it, and then measure the voltage between the other secondary wire and safety ground. (AC volts on the meter) You should have extremely close to zero, maybe a few microvolts if you have a really good meter. You can use AC Amps on the meter, again only microamps max. You can try this to a ground rod, anything else you choose and you will get the same results. An isolation transformer is no different, just different voltage ratio, either secondary wire to safety ground or any other ground gives you nothing. You can't get shocked from nothing. John S.

what if one installs a portable RCD to the cable coming out from output socket....?

can you hear a difference...?

This is why I raised a whole heap of questions.....being a layman I am not sure what I understand your comment...but what I do understand is that there is a whole heap of confusion....

Can this be retrofitted?

Thanks....much appreciated. But are they safe...?