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What is the typical resistance across the various terminals of a MC phono cartridge?

...And I think I know the answer but am just looking for confirmation. Has my cartridge gone (or arrived) bad?
There seems to be no resistance across the positives in fact anywhere across all four terminals.
It plays nicely but there's a bit more background than I'd like.


thatspeck

Showing 2 responses by folkfreak

folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
Applying DC across your cartridge is a big no-no and may well have damaged your cart (assuming you used a multimeter to try and measure the coil resistance)

Long discussion of this topic here in the context of some designs of demag circuits that may output DC
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/mc-cartridge-degaussing-demagnetizing

Having said this the current generated by a multimeter at the lowest resistance range measurement setting is probably <1mA, in other words in the same sort of range as that generated by the cart in use so you may be OK -- but don't make a habit of it
folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
@almarg that seems a high current level, I was drawing on the specs as posted here ... of course we both agree it’s not something you should do. Am I stupid to presume that applying current at these levels to an MC would actually cause the cantilever to deflect (ie turning the generator into a motor?)
http://www.ni.com/tutorial/3981/en/
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