Loading for Air Tight PC-1 Supreme


Does anyone know what is the ideal loading for the Air Tight PC-1 Supreme cartridge? I cant seem to find any info anywhere
ianchang
The 47K will not work in my opinion. Tonal balance and distortion of the Air Tight is drastically changed with load.
Both your phono stages have internal stepup transformers, so Rushton's setting (based on his active phono stage) will not apply.

Loading of LOMC's with stepup transformers is both more critical and more complex than with active stages. The optimal load depends on the turns ratio of the transformer, and small adjustments can make large sonic changes.

I'd suggest checking with your phono stage manufacturers or dealers for guidance (though in my experience many offer less help than they should). Let them know the internal impedance of your cartridge (2.5 ohms) and they should be able to give you a starting place.

BTW, the brochure claims the Artemis ATE-2001's MC inputs are switchable to 3 ohms or 20 ohms. It's only the MM input that's fixed at 47K. Use the MC inputs and try both settings, just to give yourself some reference points.

With any stepup, you also have to decide whether to use primary or secondary side loading, another complex issue which was discussed on on a recent thread here. Look that thread up for an overview from someone who understands this difficult topic. I fine tuned LOMC's through stepups for several years with success, but it always took considerable experimentation to fine tune results and if I took the same cartridge and SUT to another system the optimal load was never the same.

If I'm making it sounds like there's no simple answer, it's because there's no simple answer. Loading with active gain stages is much easier.
pardon my ignorance. Does it mean that once a Phono stage utilise a step up transformer, I will have to set the loading based on the internet impedence of the cartridge?
With a low output moving coil cartridge (LOMC) you always have to set impedance based on the internal impedance of the cartridge - no matter what kind of phono stage you have.

An active gain stage just makes calculating a reasonable value simpler.
With the PL-1 I seem to be only able to set the impedance based on the loading impedance and not internal impedance. From the leaflet that came with my PC-1 Supreme cartridgem, airtight seems to suggest a loading of 100ohm to 800ohm and preferrably 400ohm. But that leaflet is met for the PC-1 i believe. I wonder if the loading for the PC-1 Supreme is the same as PC-1