I know personally five top line cartridge makers, and when quizzed on this question, they all confided to me that they themselves, use 47k. loading.
When asked why they then recommend much lower values in their instructions, they all said it was because of the "fixed opinion" of most reviewers and audiophiles that such low output MCs need a low value resistive load, and that they didn't want to buck the trend!
I have found every cartridge I have owned, or have ever used, sounds more alive and vibrant at 47k - except for one - the unusual IKEDA, which did sound better at around 100 ohms.
IME, loading a cartridge is not the correct path to handle unwanted tonal qualities, changing the connecting cable can do more with less losses. And my own theory on why loading can change the characturistics of a cart is that they all have a HF peak, and loading can flatten this out. But this peak is normally well above audibility, so what's the problem? I say it's overloading a non optimum phono section, and that's the area you should be looking at to really hear what your cartridge can do!.
Regards, Allen (Vacuum State)
When asked why they then recommend much lower values in their instructions, they all said it was because of the "fixed opinion" of most reviewers and audiophiles that such low output MCs need a low value resistive load, and that they didn't want to buck the trend!
I have found every cartridge I have owned, or have ever used, sounds more alive and vibrant at 47k - except for one - the unusual IKEDA, which did sound better at around 100 ohms.
IME, loading a cartridge is not the correct path to handle unwanted tonal qualities, changing the connecting cable can do more with less losses. And my own theory on why loading can change the characturistics of a cart is that they all have a HF peak, and loading can flatten this out. But this peak is normally well above audibility, so what's the problem? I say it's overloading a non optimum phono section, and that's the area you should be looking at to really hear what your cartridge can do!.
Regards, Allen (Vacuum State)