Ohm Loads for cartridges

Resistance loading your phonograph cartridge will affect it's bandwidth, distortion and tonal balance . There is sometime an effect on the dynamic contrast as well. You should seek advice from the manufacturer (or importer) to find the proper load for your exact cartridge, and then try their suggestion. Certain cartridges can be "tuned" with more or less load than the amount suggested, and often that experimentation is required to find the perfect load in your system. Last, once your chosen load has been determined, your preamp may be fitted with a higher quality resistor than the one supplied by the manufacturer. This is sometime easy, sometime not, depending on your preamp design and what resistor you choose to install.

Hi Carl. I have experimented with cartridge load in the Aesthetix IO phono, and the hand trimmed resistor provided by Lloyd Walker (Walker audio) was an improvement over the standard one. As far as other places in the circuit, I agree that any resistor that parallels the signal path will effect the sound. On subsonic filters, the IO does not have one. My previous unit, the Elliott Magnum Opus Phono (previously the Counterpoint SA-9, less the Infinity caps and tweaks), did have a subsonic filter, and it was adjustable in two positions. I think it was 30 HZ and 10 HZ, but I may well be wrong on those numbers. My experience with the subsonic filter (either position) was negative in my system, but that could be due to the design of the filter in that particular preamp. I previously used a 28K Vishay for loading the Benz Ruby in my system, when it was my reference cartridge. The specifications had called for the Ruby to load at 49K. My Koetsu Rosewood Platinum Signature is running at 1K Ohms, and was determined by the (selectable) choices on the rear of the IO. After that load number was determined, I tried the hand trimmed resistor provided by Walker. The improvement was very nice, considering the little money and time spent for the change.