Information on setting cartridge loading

Thank you Rauliruegas, this is helpful information. So a 100 ohm setting is considered low, while a 47,000 is high, or viceversa?

Dear Hiendmuse: The first hand information to load a cartridge is the cartridge manufacturer specs.

Load impedance in a LOMC cartridge depends on the cartridge design and on the phono stage design. Changing load impedance values affect the frequency response and resonance frequency on the cartridge ( high frequencies. ) but affect to the output level(volume we will hear: lower load impedance values means lower SPL ( tiny differences but affect what we perceive it as cartridge sounds. ) especialy at low impedance values.

Things goes a little more " complicated " with MM cartridges because we have to " match " it not only with the load impedance but with the load capacitance too.

How to know everything is fine with that load impedance ?, well you will know when hear different values. Of course you need to have some " reference " to compare against it.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

I load both my Lyras at 100 Ohms; tried it once at 75 Ohms with the Rhea and this was not good.

Try Vinylengine.com
They have a plethoria of info. Here is one page that is really cool for different cartridges.
http://www.vinylengine.com/cartridge_database.php
-John

Thank you all. Marakanetz, I have a Lyra Titan-i cartridge and am using a Graham Slee Reflex with Graham Slee Elevator which has various settings for different load.

Lyra will sound different 47K vs. 100Ohms, but will not sound different 100Ohms vs. 1Kohm. I would not recommend loading Lyra <100Ohms.

Much of this depends on the design of the MC, internal impedance and coil/magnet structures; some cartridges respond audibly to changes in loading (Koetsu) while others it seems to make very little difference (Lyra).

cartridge loading changes on MC cartridges typically affect the high frequencies, so listen for excess brightness and work from there. Some people like MCs loaded at 47k, just like MM cartridges.