Transfiguration Phoenix S cartridge - impedance loading recommendation?


This cartridge has a low internal impedance of 1-2 Ohms, and the manufacturer recommends an impedance loading of >7 Ohms.

My phono stage (Accuphase AD 2900) has MC impedance settings of 10, 30, 100, and 300 Ohms.

I have tried it at 10, 30, and 100 Ohms and they all sound ok.  I am running it at 10 Ohms for now.

What settings have you found to be best?

toronto416

Many thanks to everyone for your feedback and expert advice - much appreciated!

I will try 30 and 100 Ohms and not 10 ohms as the internal impedance of the cartridge is 2 ohms.

@toronto416 I ran that cartridge for many years. It was plug and play; my phono section has a 47K Ohms input (the industry standard for all cartridges).

The only reason you might need loading is if your phono section is bothered by RFI generated by the cartridge, due to it being an active inductive device in parallel with the capacitance of your tonearm cables.

RFI can really mess with audio electronics! But if the designer of the phono section was aware of this phenomena, it should be plug and play with no worries about loading whatsoever.