You underestimate yourself! Sounds to me like you understand it perfectly. Basically, you are substituting the 20db of gain provided by the step-up transformer (20db = a factor of 10 gain in voltage) for the 20db which had been provided by the jfet section of the phono stage.
So the overall gain will remain the same. And by removing the resistors you are keeping the loading on the cartridge in the same ballpark, and within specification.
The benefit of the change will be elimination of the noise problems you mentioned, IF those noise problems were due to the jfet section of the phono stage. That is probably a good bet, because since noise generated by the front end of a phono stage is amplified by all of the other electronics that follows in the system, that is typically the most significant contributor to overall system noise.
The only possible concerns that occur to me, which seem unlikely, would be the possibility that the 7mv might overdrive the mm section of the phono stage, or that overall system gain (including your power amp) might result in having to operate the volume control down towards the bottom of its range. But if you haven't had either of those symptoms running the cartridge through the 20db gain provided by the jfet front end, I don't think you will have them with the step-up xfmr that provides similar gain.
Regards,
-- Al
So the overall gain will remain the same. And by removing the resistors you are keeping the loading on the cartridge in the same ballpark, and within specification.
The benefit of the change will be elimination of the noise problems you mentioned, IF those noise problems were due to the jfet section of the phono stage. That is probably a good bet, because since noise generated by the front end of a phono stage is amplified by all of the other electronics that follows in the system, that is typically the most significant contributor to overall system noise.
The only possible concerns that occur to me, which seem unlikely, would be the possibility that the 7mv might overdrive the mm section of the phono stage, or that overall system gain (including your power amp) might result in having to operate the volume control down towards the bottom of its range. But if you haven't had either of those symptoms running the cartridge through the 20db gain provided by the jfet front end, I don't think you will have them with the step-up xfmr that provides similar gain.
Regards,
-- Al