Arm and MC transformer to match ZYX Air3 cartridge

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Eric,
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I think, depending on budget that a Tri-Planar or a Schroder Reference would be two of the best picks to match up with an Airy3.
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I would urge you to go with the SB / Copper coiled version of the Airy3.
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If budget would allow, the UNIverse SB/copper coiled version would be a huge move up over the Airy3, but the Airy3 is a stellar cartridge.
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Do plan on the Airy3 taking 150-200 hours to fully break-in. The Cardas Frequency Sweep Record will greatly help and speed up the break-in process.
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Enjoy...you are in for quite a treat.
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Rgds,
Larry
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hello eric, i just recently upgraded to the airy three copper or x, with the sb base for added weight on the cartridge, i am using a vpi 10.5i arm on my aries three table, for phono preamp i have a ear 834p modded by mitch, with teleafunken tubes, the zyx was a huge upgrade from the dynavector 20xl,i am on the verge of trying the bent audio tx103 step up transformer, if any one is useing the tx103 chime in your thoughts, mike

In this day and age of truly magnificent high gain, low noise phono preamplifiers, I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would want to compromise the ultra-refined performance of an expensive low output MC cartridge by running its output through a step up transformer -- of even the highest quality. Sorry guys, I just don't get it -- it's like, "Why bother?"

And I'm not prejudiced. I used to use a Mitchell Cotter myself, but that was 1985! So have at me if you like, but IMO, they represent a giant step backward.
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" this day and age of truly magnificent high gain, low noise phono preamplifiers"

which ones are you referring to?

There are many, Plinko. But to get right to the heart of what Nsgarch is talking about, I would say to look for phono stages with FET high gain stages instead of transformers or tubes. Transformers are going to filter out dynamics and tubes can do the same but mostly they are just plain noisy in high gain circuits. That's not to say that tube phono stages in general are bad. There is just so much better resolution with a properly designed SS gain circuit for LO MCs.