Phono Cart Impedance Question


I have a little bit of hiss through my 6 ohm, 0.28mV cart but only at a volume pushing the upper end of my listening volume...and it's only audible before I drop the needle, and even then not from the listening position.  I realize I therefore likely have a "non problem"!  

But I still have a generic question on to the sensitivity of producing hiss as it relates to cartridge impedance alone.  If one kept all other cart specs identical (including output of course) would you expect hiss to go up or down at the same volume and system gain if I used an 8 ohm or 12 ohm cart instead?  It seems like the hiss would likely go up just like moving to a higher impedance speaker under the same gain setup but perhaps I'm looking at this incorrectly? I realize moving to a slightly output cart could very well reduce the hiss.

Thoughts?   Sorry if this is a ridiculously obvious question and answer.

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Showing 5 responses by mijostyn

Three, go here   http://www.tubeaudiostore.com/tubes.html.
Some tubes are much better than others. Roger sifts through hundreds of tubes and categorizes them as regular, low noise and super low noise.
I changed the three 6922's in my ARC phono amp for Roger's Super Low Noise tubes and my noise level dropped at least 6 dB. Very impressive. The tubes are now 6 years old and still going strong. 

Mike


Yes, they are pricey but every last one I have gotten from him has been super quiet, 6 so far. They test each tube individually on a tester I think Roger actually design. Clio works for him. Earth to Clio! Want to chime in?
Yup, that Roger. Hope you like them. They made a big difference in the noise level of my ARC and lower noise means better sound in some respects. They work so well I have not felt the urge to change phono amps ever since I started using Roger Modjeski's (hope I spelled that right) tubes. Go for the SLN tubes. It would cost you a lot more to get a quieter phono amp!
Enjoy,
Mike
I doubt RFI three. All the original tubes in my ARC were noisy. The SLN tubes if I remember correctly are 1 in 100! But it could be just inherent noise in your phono section. It does not seem that bad according to your description. The best thing to do might be nothing rather than spend money chasing your tail. My own rough test for phono noise is if I can hear it between songs over the background noise of the blank groove I'll go after it. If not it won't matter.