ATH-3

About the ATH-3

The Air Tight ATH-3 is a Japanese, transformer-based MC step-up transformer (SUT) designed to raise the very low output of low-impedance moving-coil phono cartridges to a level suitable for a conventional MM phono input. It uses a specially developed high-permeability (Hi-μ) transformer core and is configured for floating balanced operation at the input and output. The standard low-impedance version is intended primarily for cartridges with approximately 1–7 ohms internal impedance. Air Tight also specified that the impedance range could be converted to approximately 7–40 ohms by internal rewiring or factory configuration. The later ATH-3s added independent input and output ground-lift switches and should not be confused with the original ATH-3. Air Tight lists the ATH-3 under its discontinued products, while the ATH-3s is the successor/currently promoted version.