Benz Ebony LP loading

I am using the 499 ohm resistor in the Ayre. After checking I noticed the cartridge was a cats whisker off of the exact setting of the overhang template. I can't believe that such a small correction could improve the sound so much!

once the LP it's broken in, I think you'll find that higher is better, more like 2k and up.

I was using a fixed loading of 470 ohms. Both my Ruby2 and LP were at this. My room is very HF unfriendly and I can't get rid of the over strident HF no matter what I do. I tried a few different phonostages and always seemed to prefer 200-300 ohms. THEN, I recently picked up a PH5. Amazingly I prefer wide open at 47K. Why? I find the bass is superior at this setting and therefore the HF's are a bit easier to tollerate now that the LF's are more prevelent. 1000 ohms isn't bad but it can cut the bass slightly whle leaving the HF intact. The Benz Lukachek is set to 20K if I remember right. Which explains why it had greater bass. A friend of mine bought my Ruby 2 and runs it at 47K (no choice). His room is very HF friendly. I never heard my Ruby2 sound so good on top. So really it's system/room dependent but if you have a chance to try a phonostage that allows 1000 or more try it out. The LP loves to run more towards wide open.

Thanks for the information on the LP. Because of you, I am running it now at 47k. The bass and mids are much better, but the highs are much too strident now. I touched base with Ayre the other day who is sending me a few different loads to try. This cartridge is a trade up. I had a Benz Ebony H in there before. Let me tell you that it was absolutely gorgeous. Everything was right about it, but piggy me thought the low output LP was going to be even better. Oh if I could have my H back (some lucky guy bought it from me here on A-Gon.) Maybe the LP isnt broken in yet. I have a Superscoutmaster with the 10.5i arm on it which is a breeze to adjust the VTA. The arm's been going up and down for a month now without the rightness I heard with the H. I'll report back when I get the other resistors. Thanks again.

Try a stepup transformer.