Can you run the HANA SL MC at 100 ohms?


I am tempted by the Hana low output MC  cartridge which has gotten great reviews and seems good value. However the mfr specs say the loading should be > 400 ohms. My own phono stage only allows 100 ohms for MC cartridges-as do many others. Has anyone tried the Hana at 100 ohms and were you happy with the result?  Also what difference should I expect to hear at 100 versus 400?
rrm

No you cannot hurt anything with the “wrong” phono load resistance, and whoever wrote that bit of advice about never using 47K to load an MC cartridge is full of crap. It has been mentioned before on this thread, but in case you hadn’t read it, you can make a stronger case that 100 ohms is the wrong load for a Hana cartridge with an internal resistance of 40 ohms. The rule of thumb says you should load that cartridge with 400 ohms or higher resistance. But it still isn’t wrong to try 100 ohms. If you like it just recognize that by loading that cartridge with 100 ohms, you are likely to be rolling off the high frequencies, possibly within the audible range. Plus, you are losing some of the gain of the cartridge.

Good, thanks. I can't hear above about 10-14KHz anyway... I'll try 470 again also, but 100 is sounding great. I also listen at ~60-70 dB with 95 dB efficient spks, so gain is not an issue. 

60-70db? With headphones, maybe I could hear the music at that SPL.  From a speaker, that is barely above ambient noise. Anyway, carry on. You're fine.

You have a noisy house... My house is about 35dB with everything turned off.

I think you might be surprised how common that is. People listening (generally) under 60 dB isn’t uncommon. I did a poll in an audiophile group once and got a lot of responses. I was surprised how many listened under about 70 dB.

I do confess I like it loud or to sound like the musicians are in the room. This is mostly small group jazz with or without vocals. I only own a Radio Shack db meter, but it tells me I listen at 85-90db. Measured at my listening position. I know folks who measure their SPLs at much higher levels. it really depends upon how you are making your measurements. Perhaps you own more sophisticated measuring devices than mine. That would not be hard. It’s just my wife and me in a big suburban house, so ambient noise is very low.