Cartridge Loading- Low output M/C

On that thought...all I can say is that my phono preamp (Plinius Koru) is very highly reviewed. I'm currently using an Ortofon Quintet Black. My settings are 22 ohms and I'm using 66 dbs of gain. The sound is spectacular...no issues. These are the only settings I've used since purchasing the Koru. Thus my apprehension with where to set the Koru with my soon arriving Cadenza Bronze...BTW it will be attached to my new VPI Prime Signature. I'm sure I can find the right settings...just really looking for a starting point.

The best starting point to check your cartridge and phono stage is 47k Ohm for MC (take in count what Atmasphere said)  

@atmasphere 

I didn't know most of that. Thanks for sharing!

Krellog,

You got a lot of useful information and advice above, particularly from lewn and atmasphere.  From my own experience, I tend to like to run my cartridges wide open, because my tube-based phonostage is not prone to overload from RFI and I get the most top end extension and "air" that way (this open top end is why one pays big bucks for MC cartridges).  But, if there is close to universal loading (one that works reasonably well with most MC cartridges) it would be around 100-150 ohms. 

Have you listened to your setup with a different loading than 22 ohms?  That would be a LOT of loading for almost any cartridge and it would tend to kill dynamics and make the top end dull.  While the particular sound one likes is a personal preference, I would be concerned that you might be utilizing excessive loading to compensate for other problems that are better addressed more directly.  For example, if you have the tonearm raised too high at the pivot (excessively high VTA/SRA), this tends to create a thin, edgy sound that you might be compensating for by excessive loading).

Dear  @atmasphere : The OP is asking for loading and not why many phono stages works in different way when we make load values.

Who cares, he as any one of us already owns a phono stage it does not matter what and no one can make a world research to find out which phono stages works as should be, it's imposible to do that.

So, what each one of us have to do is to load our cartridges according what we have and according each one music/sound priorities. That's all.

R.