Eminent Technology ET-2 Tonearm Owners

Glad to hear that Harry. Did you visit the "Bluebird cafe"? I'd love to make a visit.
I'm excited about a new acquisition, arriving on Wednesday. -An Allnic 1201 phono preamp. It's tubed, but uses a transformer based input. I'll have to stick with the lower impedance loading on this piece, as the unit has a max of 260 ohms which is what Jon Carr recommends with the capacitance of my cables.
This is uncharted territory for me, as I've never used step-up transformers on low output cartridges. I hope it's a step up for my system. I'll write a f/u.
Best to all,
John

John,
Tried to go to The Bluebird for lunch not realizing they were only open for dinner.  By then it was too late for reservations.  Good luck with the new preamp.  Let me know how it works out.  I've never used a SUT either.
Harry

Hi Guys
Look forward to your impressions of the Allnic John. Harry would love to check out the Nashville music scene one day ...

Of note on the loading discussions. Taken from Lyra website

Kleos

 Recommended load directly into MC phono input: 95.3ohm ~ 816ohm (determine by listening, or follow detailed guidelines in user manual)
 Recommended load via step-up transformer: 5 ~ 15ohm (step-up transformer’s output must be connected to 10kohm ~ 47kohm MM-level RIAA input, preferably via short, low-capacitance cable)

Delos

 Recommended load directly into MC phono input: 97.6ohm ~ 806ohm (determine by listening, or follow detailed guidelines in instruction manual)
 Recommended load via step-up transformer: 5 ~ 15ohm (step-up transformer’s output must be connected to 10kohm ~ 47kohm MM-level RIAA input, preferably via short, low-capacitance cable)

***********

My XV1 has a recommended loading of > 30. I have run it full out 47k with no issues.

From this thread..

There were good takeaways for me from J. Carr on that thread, from quite a while ago.

J Carr

Generally speaking, the greater the capacitance across the plus and minus cartridge outputs, the heavier the resistive loading needs to be to control the resulting high-frequency spike. Conversely, less capacitance allows the resistive load on the cartridge to be reduced, which will benefit dynamic range, resolution and transient impact.

*************

PS. The possible frequency range occupied by the high-frequency resonant spike also includes the frequency range encompassed by LP pops and ticks, and these can likewise be of quite large magnitude (larger than any music signal inside the groove). Just as with the high-frequency resonant spike, controlling pop and tick energy is the task of the phono stage (although it is a big help if the cartridge has a low-mass moving assembly). The phono stage and cartridge can have an immense influence on how "noisy" your LPs appear to be.

^^^
It highlighted for me also, how important a role the direct shot wiring plays. I am sure it plays a big part, along with my phono stage, for the reason I am able to run with no load.

Cheers Chris

Hey Chris,
Thanks for the link to that rather involved discussion of the interaction of cartridge, interconnects, and loading. I must say I'm more confused than ever, but have learned a few things.
Has anyone taken into account the break in of the connection between cartridge and phono pre? With only millivolts on the cable, does it ever break in, and stay that way, if you believe in such things?
I got sold on a new interconnect by "Allister" at Audioquest, incorporating the DBS system. -Never used DBS before, but seemed like a good idea for this application.
I imagine it will beat my 25y/o AQ diamond IC's. An AQ water will arrive tomorrow. If it doesn't work in that application, I'll try it elsewhere in the system.
I'll get back to you about that.
John  

Just to add to my last post in followup; as I got curious and just finished talking with Gene at Take Five Audio who made my loom.

This is in regards to the ET 2 direct shot wire looms being used.

Capacitance versus Noise

Where my wires leave the armtube they are separated with distance between them. There are two reasons for this. 1) The least binding effect on the ET 2.5 travel. 2) lowest capacitance.

Now if you braid the wires you will reduce noise - but you will increase capacitance. It’s a give and take. So when discussing the benefits of low capacitance with loading the cart - a big part of the result will be the way the cart wires are arranged in proximity to one another.