Cartridge incompatibility, Soundsmith and Luxman


I have a Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC Star cartridge that sound really amazing, but I just changed to a Luxman L-590AXII and the gain and loading is fixed.

Output/loading for cartridge: 0.4mV, recommended load resistance 470 ohm

Input sensitivity/impedence for the amp: 0.3mV, 100 ohm

 

The gain should be ok, but the load is way off and you can clearly hear it. The highs are rolled off and I need to crank up the volume to be acceptable level.

 

So here's the question... what cartridge would work in this setup? Would love to keep the Soundsmith, but I'm not going to add SUT with additional cables and all that complexity.

128x128audiojan

Audiogon, the land of “ nearly as good “ but with a penchant for Lagavulin. I prefer Talisker, small sliver of ice….

What is right after that input R ? Some dude who invented the cartridge in question seemed…interested in that…

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Tomic, your point, other than the notion about personal preference, is lost on me. Can you be more explicit? Do you really not know what comes after the load R? I’m guessing that was rhetorical.

The location on the board for the resister is probably either surface mount or sized for a 1 watt or less resister. 1/4 or 1/8 watt is fine. Vishay? How's about 42 cents.     

 

Obviously you know nothing about quality resistors. Vishay is a big company, and they make dozens of different types of resistors, much like Caddock. So not all Vishay resistors are created equal. One might debate the need for or an expensive nude Vishay in this application, but in my experience there is a soupçon of an increase in SQ associated with that choice, and it’s a cheap luxury item. Like I said, Caddock TF030 are very transparent as well. I doubt I could hear a difference between a nude Vishay TX series and the TF030. Form factor of the Caddock can make it difficult to install in a PCB designed for a standard through hole resistor. 1/4W would actually be overkill; both of these types are >1/4W.