Dear friends @intactaudio : I made an extensive search looking for documented/measured information about the JC comment on IMD and looking for too if JC mentioned a second time that issue and he never did it, at least I can't find out.
Btw, here information from experts, first by @hagtech :
"" As mentioned earlier, the peaking is best damped by lowering the load resistance. This is why MC cartridge manufacturers often request loading of about 100 ohms. The next plot shows the 5mH 10 ohm cartridge loaded with 200pF and a variable resistance. ..................... Most MC cartridges have less inductance than this example (chosen to highlight the issue), and so the typical loading value of 100 ohms is usually quite reasonable. "
Next comes by the designer/manufacturer of SUTs as intactaudio:
" Most modern moving coil cartridges have a source impedance of about 10 ohms and the “load impedance ten times the source impedance” rule suggests 100 ohms is a good choice for load impedance ...... This is well in line with the recommendations from many cartridge manufacturers. Anything above 100 ohms should be equally suitable.
Does the cartridge's tonal balance change with load impedance? It certainly does if the cartridge is a moving magnet type, but low output moving coil cartridges are much less sensitive to changes in the load impedance. Users sometimes claim that higher load impedances produce a brighter sound than lower ones, but cartridge manufacturers tend be non-specific about recommended load impedances, often recommending a wide range or simply anything above a minimum impedance.
The recommendation of Rothwell Audio Products is in line with Ortofon, Audio Technica and most other cartridge manufacturers - that 100 ohms is a good value for most cartridges, and that the exact value is not critical as long as it is well above the cartridge's source impedance.
One thing is certain, and that is that the load impedance should not be equal to the cartridge's source impedance. That would produce a 6dB loss of signal (when there's often only a few hundred microvolts to start with) and seriously compromise the signal-to-noise ratio. "
R.