Hi, tipatina,
Like you, I wanted to try MC, but keep my T-8. So about 4 years ago, I purchased and assembled a K&K Audio Moving Coil Phono Step-up Kit using Lundahl LL9206 transformers. I ended up with a neat looking little black box (see my Gallery for pictures) between my Denon DL103R and the phono inputs of my AVA T-8 preamp. The kit comes with all parts (except parallel load resistors), assembly and break-in directions, as well as charts for determining gain settings by soldering in jumper wires and load impedance by plugging in resistors to sockets on the circuit board. Mine is set for 26dB gain and 40 ohms load impedance. I'm colorblind, so I had to get some help with the resistor color code. The jumpers obviously are permanent, but you can experiment with different resistors, which do affect the sound. Sonicwise it seems to do the job, though I have no other step-up transformers or MC preamps to compare it with. At the time the cost was about $300 including shipping, plus a few pennies for various resistors to try. I have to say the older I get, the smaller and tighter kit circuit boards are getting, and the eyes and hands just aren't up to the task the way they used to be in the old under the chassis, point-to-point wiring days of the great tube kits. So my kit-building days are just about over. Your mileage may vary, however, as they say, so good luck on whatever you decide.
