Phono pre amp

Would help if you say what settings are available on your phono stage.  Not all of us are intimately familiar with it.  Also, what is the internal resistance of your cartridge and what is its nominal output?

@lewmspecs 
The specs are hand written inside the box the cartridge came in, and the handwriting is poor. I think the output is .65mV. I think the MC resistance is 9 ohms +/- 10%. The load imp is 20 ohms to 47 kohms. There are 5 inputs MC/MM and 8 resistive settings for each. I'm currently set at 47k. It has a +6db setting which is currently on and sounds good. I've read the manual it says use the cartridge set up data sheets which as I said are hand written, or use your judgment as to what sounds the best? Anything else?

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.

@millercarbon Thanks for the explanation. I thought there would be one specific setting for resistance that should be used based on the cartridge. I will experiment with it today to see where the sweet spot is that does what you said. 

Specs for your cartridge show 200ohms load, you can start around there, and listen how it goes.
My experience with VDH suggests a higher loading, but experiment all the way up.

G

very nice cartridge and phono stage, 5 inputs, lots of variability, it remembers settings!!!

your cartridge specs

https://elusivedisc.com/van-den-hul-ddt-2-special-mc-cartridge-0-65mv/

as noted, you are correct: .65mv output; coil impedance 9 ohms; recommended load 200 ohms.

You might simply ask for advice from Music Direct about your cartridge.

You also have the option of setting up slightly different settings for the 5 inputs, then simply move your tonearm's cables to those optional inputs, readily hear any differences.

@elliottbnewcombjr There's no need to unplug the cables, the settings are changed on the front panel via push button. When you change a settings it mutes for a second then changes. I'm currently at 400R. It goes from 100R to 400R no settings for 200R. I'm currently at 400R and it sounds balanced with deep bass and no shrilly highs. 100R was kind of dull. 

I often run my MC cartridges wide open (47K) if the phono stage permits. Otherwise choose any load R that is at least 10X the internal resistance of the cartridge. In this case 100ohms or any value greater would suffice. Use your ears. The negative effects that eventually set in as you reduce the phono stage load, as described by Miller carbon, occur when you reduce the load resistance below some value that usually is at least 10 times the value of the internal resistance. Also, when you go below that ratio, you begin to lose voltage output to ground, and the apparent gain of the cartridge is reduced, and the cartridge sounds muddy. Just don’t go down that far, and you won’t have that problem. Since vdH recommends 200 ohms or greater, what more do you need to know?


By the way, contrary to what miller carbon says, low output moving coil cartridges do make appreciable current. That is why the interest in current driven phono stages has legs. You can calculate for yourself the current output of an LOMC cartridge. Just divide its signal voltage output by its internal resistance. If you think about that equation, you can see that cartridges with very low internal resistance make more current, compared to higher voltage  output cartridges that also have much higher internal resistance.