MC cartridge loading: still baffled

 Reviewing this thread, what surprises me is how many other people besides myself have empirically discovered that they prefer to use a 47K load with one or another LOMC cartridge. I arrived at the conclusion that I preferred 47K quite by accident, speaking for myself. And I previously thought that I was a loner in this regard.

I would guess that using a blank LP would give you a baseline for AS force, because I am guessing that the skating force on a blank surface would be a bit less in magnitude compared to that of a stylus traveling in a groove, where the contact points are to the side walls of the groove.  Whereas on a blank LP, the very tip of the stylus is all that would contact the vinyl.  Plus, the stylus is not having to negotiate tiny undulations due to the recorded signal. So, maybe less skating force.  If all this is so, then the blank LP could give a good baseline from which one might need to add a bit more AS force for playing LPs.  I dunno.  I certainly never meant to say it is dead wrong to use a blank LP, but I prefer either Mijo's suggested method (using the run-out grooves) or my own, which is apparently also the approach recommended by Frank Schroeder.  (At least I am in good company.)  I think this is enough tortuosity for all of us.

Raul seems to be my personal critic, following me around on these pages to disagree or debunk what I might have written.  Raul notwithstanding, I have no problem with anyone setting AS any way they want to.  I was merely re-quoting a fact: blank LPs do not generate the friction force on the stylus tip that is generated by any LP with actual grooves encoding music.  This is not a truth that emanates only from me; others have also mentioned it.  Raul or anyone else can take that or leave it.  Nor do I dispute the fact that the skating force is constantly varying across the surface of an LP, largely in fact due to groove tortuosity and also to the constantly varying tracking angle error.  Thus, there is no such thing as one correct amount of AS, even for any one single LP.

Yogi, blank LP is not a good tool for setting AS. The skating force is due to the friction of the stylus as it passes over the vinyl in the groove. A blank LP by definition has no grooves. Therefore, it does not present the same friction related resistance to travel as does a real LP with grooves. This has been stated and restated over and over again on various forums.

Another way to set AS: Start with the very lowest amount that your tonearm permits, but not zero.  Gradually increase from that starting point until you have no audible tracking distortion in the R channel.  (R channel distorts with zero AS, so you want the minimal AS that eliminates any such issue.)  Others will have other views.  This is no more nor no less vague than Mijo's method.

1.  There are at least a dozen useful test LPs.  Depends upon what you want to test for. The Cardas LP is a good one to have.2. Yes.3. Are you kidding?

Mijo forgot to mention that your empirical finding that you need much less AS force, in terms of grams, than VTF is absolutely to be expected.  The notion that if VTF = 1.5, then AS = 1.5 is antiquated.  Setting AS = VTF will nearly always result in an excess of AS, which you can hear in the form of L channel distortion. So, you did good.
Likewise for the choice of resistive loading.  First, as Mijo said, you are always well advised to go along with a manufacturer recommendation, and second because loading is for the phono stage more than for the cartridge.  You might want to search the long and contentious thread on cartridge loading for posts by Atmasphere, who explains this well.  I too have found that 47K sounds more "open" for me, using an Atmasphere MP1 phono section with one or two of my LOMC cartridges.