Phono pre amp


About 2 weeks ago I posted this question about upgrading the phono stage of my Yamaha AS2100. You guys gave me a lot of ideas, so I did my homework and chose a barely used Musical Fidelity Nu Vista Vinyl. I'm using the XLR output to my Yamaha. I've played with it briefly and It sounds great. My question is, how do I determine which settings to use? Do I choose with my ears? I have a VDH MC DDT II Special cartridge and a VPI Prime TT with the 10" JMW tone arm. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
chasda

Showing 1 response by millercarbon

Phono cartridges put out voltage, and not much of that, but even less current. Because of the lack of current most of them sound more powerful and dynamic with a very high resistance, typically 47k Ohms. But this can result in something called ringing, an emphasis or hardness in the top end. A main reason MC are often regarded as having an exaggerated top end.  

The solution is to load them down with loads that can go down into the hundreds or even tens of ohms. This greatly rounds out and warms up the sound. But because of low cartridge current output it can also at some point start to "run out of gas" resulting in decreased dynamics, detail and vitality.

Where exactly this point comes is entirely subjective. You can only decide for yourself. We are not talking minor hard to hear differences here either. One will stand out to you as right, or at any rate much better than all the others. Just try some different values. You will see.