Matching the cartridge to the phono stage

The SL is an outlier because of its high internal impedance relative to other LOMC cartridges. Plain and simple. The rule of thumb in matching audio components is you want the input impedance of the driven or downstream device to be at least 10 times higher than the output impedance of the driving or upstream device. Where cartridges and phono stages are concerned, that rule is often bent a little but as the ratio of the two impedances falls below 10, more and progressively more of the signal voltage output is lost to ground. That’s often tolerable but also there is a gradual high frequency roll off. So, the SL has internal Z of 33 ohms and Hana recommends phono input Z of >400. Makes sense.

You might also read Atmasphere’s posts where he points out that resistance loading is for the phono stage and that for a well designed phono, the standard 47K load ought to work fine.

@ajones82  My vote is to keep your Hana and listen to it.....I bet it will work just fine on the MC low setting and you will be happy.  In my experience I have only seen the gain of a phono section.  My phono stage has 74db in high setting and I have a a 0.48mV cartridge that pairs quite nicely.  Your Hana is 0.5mV which I believe is a very conservative output for a MC low setting.  There are many that have 0.2-0.3mV which I have not ever tried.  Trying to start over with your cartridge research,  return yours and buy another is no fun.  Also, I have had Rega:  80s Planar 2, RP6, RP8 and P10 now.  All the Rega cartridges were too bright for me(Exact 2, Apheta 3 & Aphelion 2).  I have had the Goldring Eroica LX, Benz Micro Wood SM & now the Kiseki Purpleheart that I love!  I tried the Soundsmith Sussuro MkII that didn't work(long story) and a Lyra Kleos.  I bought the spacers that slide in from the top with makes any VTA adjustment super easy.  I haven't found much need for adjustment but the spacers are cheap so go ahead and get them and see if you can tell a difference.  Let us know what you do and enjoy!  That Luxman looks awesome...should provide years and years of enjoyment.

dhite71, Do you see that there is more to it than just whether the phono stage has adequate gain for the cartridge?  Cartridges and phono stages are often blamed for match up failures when really the blame ought to lie with the audiophile who tried to mate unmatchable or poorly matched components.

Most phono pre designers seem to build around 100 ohms, but the SL is an outlier at being both low-output MC and recommending >400 ohms. Interesting. 

@paulburnett There's actually a standard for phono inputs, which is 47K. A cartridge designer might recommend a 100 Ohm load or the like because he has no way of knowing what preamp its going to drive. So he recommends a 'worst case' scenario. 

Hi @lewm 

"That’s often tolerable but also there is a gradual high frequency roll off."

The statement quoted above will be true if the cartridge is an MM or MI with hundreds of mH inductance.

In contrast, MC cartridges generally have far less inductance (by a few decimal places), and therefore will not behave as claimed.

For example, if the frequency response of a Denon DL-103R (14Ω coils) is measured when the load is 47kΩ, then 47Ω (a thousand times less), the two curves will track each other to within a fraction of a decibel (at the most 0.5dB at 20kHz).

Keep in mind that a low-inductance MC cartridge is a terribly inefficient passive generator that is mechanically driven by the LP groove. As a result, its behavior changes hardly at all when the electrical load is altered.

As a handful of engineers (including Ralph and myself) have been saying for many years, the sonic differences perceived by many audiophiles is caused not by differences in the behavior of the MC cartridge as its electrical load is altered, but rather distortion in the phono stage that is triggered by the electrical reactance / ultrasonic resonance occurring between the inductance of the cartridge coils vs. the capacitance of the tonearm internal wiring, tonearm output cable, and input circuitry of the phono stage.

If a phono stage designed to be insensitive to ultrasonic or low radio-frequency energy, the tonal balance will change very little when the input load is altered, with the side benefit of reduced LP surface noise (much of which occurs within a frequency range that overlaps with the ultrasonic resonances occurring between the inductance of the cartridge and the various capacitances present between the cartridge and the amplification circuitry of the phono stage).