Is there a list of cartridge capacitance?

Thanks Ncarv, that's a very useful site, unfortunately, no info on my cartridge.

Dear friend: Your Talisman is a MC cartridge that is not affected by capacitance, you don't need to worry about. What you need to worry is about load impedance.

Usually MM/MI cartridges are the ones that needs an specific capacitance load, normaly a LOMC does not needs.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

MC carts are affected by capacitance. Its just that the values are generally much greater than those that affect MI or MM carts, due to their much lower source impedances. It will affect HO MC more than LO MC.

On the vinyl engine site there is a calculator that can compute the impact of cable/preamp input capacitance on any cart, including MC, if you know the source resistance and inductance of the cartridge. Look under "database tools":

http://www.vinylengine.com/cartridge_database_tools.php

Then down to "Cartridge/Amp Loading/Resonance"

Input the resistance and inductance for your cart, and input capacitance values to see what the resonant frequency is. I think anything above 20 KHz is fine, so capacitance values up to that resonant frequency should be OK.

Dear Dhl93449: Yes, of course are affected but in our each one system in normal MC set ups has no " effect " so why speaks of something that is useless for whom is asking? why create more " confusion " on people that are not an expert on the subject as you are.?

Now, please share with us any first hand experience with a LOMC ( the Talisman on thread subject is a LOMC not a HOMC. ) cartridge where you change capacitance with a change in the quality performance level of that cartridge. I tried several times changes on capacitance values with several LOMC cartridges with out " effect ". Of course inside the capacitance values that normaly permits any phono stage.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

See the post by cartridge designer Jonathan Carr dated 8-14-10 in this thread for an explanation of the relevance of load capacitance to LOMC's.

Also see the discussion in this thread, particularly the comments by Atmasphere.

In general, with LOMC's the lower the load capacitance the better. Although whatever difference it may make will be dependent on the particular phono stage that is being used, and in some cases there may be no difference.

Regards,
-- Al

I've found that 100 ohms sounds better to my ears than the 400 ohms Clearaudio states.

Also ,30 /pf cap seems to work using the 55 gain setting.

I came upon a review of a review of another Clearaudio cart, the insider and for me this works.

I use Nordost 2 Frey as tonearm wire from my SME V arm and my IC from Steelhead to power amps is Heimdal series 1(why did they not include the WBT next gen on the Norse 2 series ?).

So cable cap may not be as big an issue for me using these cables,but it never hurts to try to get the max performance out of what we have.

Messing about with the cap seetings did change the sound when I was using the Grado Plat and the Rega Exact 2 on my P9 table.

It's been awhile since I was in the MC camp,my first times were with a Fidelity Research FR1mk3f and a Cotter P strapping transformer.I remember how important it was that the transformer be a correct match.

I flit back and forth between 400 ohms and 100 ohms and it seems to add or subtract depending on the LP.

Thanks for all the great advice and references,dialing in a cartridge isn't rocket science, but sometimes it's nice to know if what you settle for is within the accepted wisdom and not out in right field.

What matters is how it sounds after all the fiddling is over with.

Dear Almarg: Thank's to bring those links that I'm aware of.

A>s I posted, I made and have experiences changing capacitance with LOMC cartridges and I can't remember changes on quality level performance. I'm not saying that capacitance can't affect about but if you can't detect it all the theory could be only theory.
Of course that maybe my system has not enough resolution or my ears could be not good enough to distinguish that capacitance subject. Maybe you can do it but I don't know: could you share your experiernces about?, thank you in advance.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

06-05-12: Rauliruegas
Of course that maybe my system has not enough resolution or my ears could be not good enough to distinguish that capacitance subject. Maybe you can do it but I don't know: could you share your experiernces about?

Hi Raul,

Another possibility is that your phono stage is able to handle the ultrasonic resonant peak that Jonathan Carr and Atmasphere referred to, which is sensitive to capacitance, without any audible consequences.

My own experience to this point is just with high output MM and MI cartridges, and therefore is not relevant to the question. The intention of my previous comment was just to call attention to what a couple of distinguished designers had to say on the subject, which from a technical standpoint makes sense to me.

Best regards,
-- Al

Dear Almarg: Thank's again.

regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Input the resistance and inductance for your cart, and input capacitance values to see what the resonant frequency is. I think anything above 20 KHz is fine, so capacitance values up to that resonant frequency should be OK.

Yikes! When you are dealing with LOMCs, there is no need to add any capacitance for loading! That has entirely to do with high output *moving Magnet* cartridges, where loading the cartridge does have an effect at audio frequencies.

By adding capacitance to a LOMC, you move the RF (Radio Frequency) resonant frequency *down*, but not likely into the audio band. The inductance of such cartridges is tiny, so the RF resonant frequency is going to be high. In any event, you will have to kill that resonance with a resistor, not a cap. IOW by adding capacitance in effect you have created a bit of a moving target.

Raul is correct, any amount of loading capacitance offered by the phono section is inconsequential at audio frequencies. It can have a huge affect at RF frequencies though; its the ability of your preamp to handle RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) that says how audible the loading is: the more RFI bothers your preamp, the more important you will find the loading.

Thanks Ralph, I'll set the cap on the Steelhead for 0 and have a listen.

I'd be interested to see what you think!