18:1 is a bit on the high side for a 103 but not terrible. Problem with the higher step up and the 40Ω cart is any capacitance on the secondary claims the 20kHz+ info quickly. The 103 is a 0.3mV cart and into a 1:18 loaded with 47K you get really close to the 5mV "Norm" for most mm inputs. Now 1:70.... that is high... but also a perfect fit for a 0.05mv cart into the right cable / pre combo.
I don't see where the inductance comes into play here. as long as there is sufficient inductance to cover the low end without going too low it falls out of the picture.
An interesting anecdote about the 4722 and its ilk which can be wired 1:18 / 1:36 is you get just about the same output due to the 1:36 loading the cartridge below its internal impedance and the frequency / phase plots are quite similar with the 1:36 losing a little more than 1/2 a dB @ 20Hz & 20kHz. I know of a few people who simply prefer the 1:36 hookup and given the similarity of the measured response of each it makes me wonder if any of this preference is due to the drastic load improving traceability ala Moncrief. I know this seems in contradiction to what I said above but in this case the loading in both cases is right where the transformer was specified (ie 50K load) and the measured responses are similar so I see a window of possibility. An unfair test would be to load the 1:18 setting with an additional 16K on the secondary and compare it to the 1:36 with a typical 47K. The proper way to test it would be to simply parallel 55Ω with the primary of the 1:18. The gain would be down around 4-5dB but the frequency response would minimally change.
http://www.intactaudio.com/images/SUT%20white%20paper/4722.png'
dave
I don't see where the inductance comes into play here. as long as there is sufficient inductance to cover the low end without going too low it falls out of the picture.
An interesting anecdote about the 4722 and its ilk which can be wired 1:18 / 1:36 is you get just about the same output due to the 1:36 loading the cartridge below its internal impedance and the frequency / phase plots are quite similar with the 1:36 losing a little more than 1/2 a dB @ 20Hz & 20kHz. I know of a few people who simply prefer the 1:36 hookup and given the similarity of the measured response of each it makes me wonder if any of this preference is due to the drastic load improving traceability ala Moncrief. I know this seems in contradiction to what I said above but in this case the loading in both cases is right where the transformer was specified (ie 50K load) and the measured responses are similar so I see a window of possibility. An unfair test would be to load the 1:18 setting with an additional 16K on the secondary and compare it to the 1:36 with a typical 47K. The proper way to test it would be to simply parallel 55Ω with the primary of the 1:18. The gain would be down around 4-5dB but the frequency response would minimally change.
http://www.intactaudio.com/images/SUT%20white%20paper/4722.png'
dave