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How to pick a COMPATIBLE phono cartridge

As follow-up to my recent post titled "Da Benz", I'm trying to better educate myself on how to pick a phono cartridge. There are many to choose from but I don't know which "type(s)" (i.e., output, etc.) will work well with my setup. Not considering price or characteristics at this point, but simply compatibility . Once I know that I can research options to make a selection. Looking through some past forums I see this can get complicated, so I'll provide some info on my setup:

Conrad Johnson EF-1 Phono Stage
    Gain: 40, 46, 52 db
    Phono Overload: 70 mV (40 db gain setting)
    Hum and Noise: 88 db below 10mV input

Conrad Johnson Premier 16LS Pre Amp
    Gain: 25 db
    Maximum input: 15 vrms
    Output impedance: under 700 ohms
    Hum and noise: 96 db below 1.0 mV

Conrad Johnson Premier 12 mono block Amps
    140 watts per channel
    Input Sensitivity: 0.90 volts to full power
    Input Impedance: 100k ohms

SME IV Arm
    Cartridge weight range: 5 - 16 grams
    Weight: 700 grams

And my leading cartridge candidate is the Benz Micro Wood (available in low, medium, and high versions), specs as follows:
    Output voltage: 0.4 (Low) 0.8 (Medium) 2.5 (High)
    Internal ohms: 12 (Low) 24 (Medium) 90 (High)
    Loading Range: >100 (Low) >1000 (Medium) 47k (High) 
    Weight: 9 grams
    Compliance: 15 (Low) 14 (Medium) 14 (High)
    Tracking 1.6 - 1.9 grams

The high output has been suggested. 

However, what cartridge specs should I be looking at for compatibility sake with my equipment and why? I have no idea!!!!   

Thank you to anyone who's willing to take the time to read and respond to a posting like this! :-)

Randy


rbschauman

Showing 1 response by rauliruegas

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rauliruegas
12,866 posts
 
Dear @rbschauman : Your phono stage is a solid state design a FET design with enough gain for almost any LOMC cartridge.
Been a solid state unit is " weird " its noise level spec, maybe a " finger error by CJ " . Something is not exactly clear/precise down there.

Anyway the Benz low output will works wonderful in your C&J combination.

Your SME 4 is a very good match for it too and the only advise to you is to add the damping SME mechanism for that IV model.

No, you don't need the Benz high output version. As a fact as higher the MC cartridge output as more degradation exist in the cartridge generated signal. This means that the 0.4mv is way superior to the high output version.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
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