Any of you experiment with optimal VTA for Benz Micro Cartridges

audiom......its all taste.....there is no hard and fast rule

@audiom3,
@artemus_5

I've finally started listening to my new Transrotor turntable with my Benz Micro Ebony L cartridge.  The sound is incredibly clear, spacious, focused and free of hash.

Being a newbie, I'm still wondering about the recommendation to try running the cartridge "wide open @47k." Which I presume is the impedance setting?

 I don't understand what "wide open" means.

But on my JE Audio phono stage, it makes it easy to select impedance/gain settings using buttons on the front of the unit.

You can see close up photos of the front panel here:

http://www.monoandstereo.com/2017/06/je-audio-hp-10-phono-amplifier-review.html

The MC impedance values I can select from are:

10 - 33 - 100 - 250 - 500

I was told since it's an MC cartridge to start out setting impedance at "100" as a good baseline.  Artemus, you said to try 47k which is "the default for MM cartridges" and I see that aligned with the "100" value for MC cartridges is "47" on the MM cartridge line.  Does that mean that the 100 value I've chosen amounts to the 47 value you suggest for MM?  I'm not sure how this works as I've plugged my phono arm into the MC input and I'm using those values.

Thus far the 100 impedance setting yields a gorgeous clarity and lushness, but in absolute terms it's a tad on the "dark" side, slightly rolled off.  Since I was told by my turntable pal that increasing impedance tends to brighten the sound, I tried the next highest setting of 250.  This indeed brightened the sound, giving back more air and that golden sparkle to things like cymbals and acoustic metal guitar strings that I really like.  It definitely sounds more accurate - for instance playing the same CD master against the vinyl of an album, the vinyl sounds more like the CD on the 250 setting.  But, things can get a tad analytical/piercing on this setting as well.

So I'm not sure what is left in the toolbox in tweaking the sound to my liking.  My ideal would be to have a dial between the 100 and 250 impedance setting where I could get a mix of that lushness and spaciousness of the 100 setting, and the more accurate sparkle of the 250 setting. 

Does adjusting things like VTA or the "head/tail" angle of the cartridge alter the sound and in what type of ways?

Thanks!

Ah...just had a conversation with my turntable buddy...he's saying if I find the 250 impedance setting on the phono stage maybe edging into a bit piercing it would only get worse using the MM input and going way up to 47k impedance.  That seems to make sense, if generally going up in impedance make for brighter sound.  So I'm wondering how that actually worked for others here?

Also, he pointed out I'd lose quite a bit of gain, as the phono stage can only give up to 45db gain for MM vs the 65db gain I'm using on the MC setting.

@prof. If you re-read the post from @artemus_5 from atma-sphere, you will see that the general rule about higher resistance settings sounding brighter is dependent on the phono-pre not the cartridge.  Of course there are many other factors that affect tonal balance as well such as cartridge design, VTA/SRA and tonearm specifics.  That being said, with your preamp and cartridge, I would recommend listening to all the impedance settings in the MC mode and decide what you like. You won't hurt anything.  When using your MC cart that has low output, keep it on the higher gain MC setting.  Enjoy!
-Karl