Load Settings Help: Luxman E-250 and Koetsu Black Line

As I understand atma-sphere (Ralph Karsten's) explanation, the lower your setting is, the stiffer the cantilever (& suspension) of your cartridge will get. The higher settings allow the cartridge to track more freely. I have found that many LOMC cartridges sound best at 47K ohms, even  though that is the typical MM cartridge setting.

I'd suggest that you start off with the 47K ohm setting & move down from there. At 47K you may have a brightness or glare If your phono preamp doesn't have a stable circuit. Move to 1K if that is the case and work down. Ralph explains it much better. But I've used 47K for many years with little or no issue

@viridian

The only way to load a cartridge at 47k on the e250 is to operate it without the transformers in circuit, so in MM mode. In MM mode, the gain is fixed at 38db, the output of the cartridge is .4mV. I doubt it is enough gain.

I did not know the specs on his phono pre and was/am going on the assumption that he could use 47K with a 60db gain as I can. My mistake in this particular instance. .But the idea is still appropriate for those who’s phono pre can load 47K with the MC gain. I have done this with several cartridges.

But considering that the OP may be somewhat new to MC cartridges its good that you pointed this out.

Thank you all for your help.  Clearly i've got some more reading and testing to do.  If that doesn't work out I'll be on the search for a new preamp.