Loading my XYZ 3-S ??

Dear Bryan: The load impedance in a MC cartridge is a critical isuue for the quality sound reproduction of any cartridge.

The ZYX manufacturer is the " person " that can tell you with which load impedance the frecuency response of that cartridge will be flat. Then, if you set your preamp with that manufacturer impedance advise and does not like what you are hearing, then something is wrong in other link on the audio chain in your audio system.

Please don't try to use the different load impedance value like an equalizer to conpensate for other deficiency elsewhere: this is a wrong way to make things, many peoples in this forum do that: all them are wrong.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Thank you all for your input.
I have the low output Airy 3-S with silver base (.24).
I moved the rear of the arm up one turn on the VLA adjuster and the highs came back.
This is the best the ZYX has sounding in my system.
The other question I have is why did the volume decease when I installed the 3.3K resistors in the pre-amp?
The system is also quitter with the resistors in place then with them out.

If you are using a step-up transformer before the preamp, then the transformer INPUT impedance should be equal to or higher than the cartridge OUTPUT impedance (in your case 4 ohms.) However your preamp's PHONO SECTION INPUT IMPEDANCE should be equal to or higher than the transformer's OUTPUT impedance.

Your preamp's phono section has (I'm guessing) a default input impedance of 47K (for MM cartridges.) By inserting the 3.3K resistors, you are reducing the input impedance the transformer is looking at, which shunts some of it's power. I wouldn't use any additional resistors on the preamp side of the transformer. Doing so has no effect on the impedance the cartridge is looking at.

Some step-up transformers do provide for the use of cartridge loading resistors on the INPUT side of the transformer. I don't know if yours does.

I'm not sure what you mean by "quieter" with the resistors
in place.

The Bent audio transformer that I am using are set up to have the loading resistors after the transformers.
Yes the MP-3 pre amp is defaulted at 47K.
http://www.bentaudio.com/tx103kitpics/tx103-schem.gif
So is this wrong?

Bryan, it's not wrong, but they're assuming you're going into a phono preamp meant for MC cartridges. And that you might want to adjust the output impedance of the transformer to fit a lower MC phono preamp input. This is not necessary when going into a 47K MM phonostage IMO.