I don’t have a MC cartridge. But I do have an Ortofon 2M Black. I also have a phono Preamp that allows for changing the capacitance. Ortofon recommends a capacitance of 150-300pF. I asked Ortofon, given the above range, what is the best capacitance setting to choose and why? Here is the answer I received:
”For MM cartridges, the capacitance of the input of the amplifier should more or less match the value of the MM cartridge. The higher the capacitive value of the input of the phono stage, the duller the sound will be. The lower the capacitance of the phono input, the brighter the sound gets. A mismatch results either in dark dull sound or an overbright, distorted signal. The capacitance of the phono cable should be taken into account when matching a MM cartridge to the phono stage as the capacitance of the cable adds to the capacitance of the phono input.”
”For MM cartridges, the capacitance of the input of the amplifier should more or less match the value of the MM cartridge. The higher the capacitive value of the input of the phono stage, the duller the sound will be. The lower the capacitance of the phono input, the brighter the sound gets. A mismatch results either in dark dull sound or an overbright, distorted signal. The capacitance of the phono cable should be taken into account when matching a MM cartridge to the phono stage as the capacitance of the cable adds to the capacitance of the phono input.”