Benz Ebony LP loading

Stringeen, with my Ruby 3, which possesses I believe the same gain, .34mv, I too am using 60db Gain on my Sutherland PhD. This is the highest gain setting on the Stock Gain Boards, but I do have the High Gain Boards, which are 62, 64, 66, 68, and did try these Boards when the Cartridge was brand spanking new.

It truthfully didn't seem like I was overdriving the Sutherland, or getting a too raw, or hot sound with just very minor gain differences, but I myself "may" go back to the drawing board trying these again, as well as trying a different loading, going from 1000K to 47K just for the hell of it?

The only logical conclusion I can come to..... Is that Benz, with thier new iteration of Cartridges perhaps did something that maybe sounds good on paper, (different materials for Cantilever Suspension, and/or the supposed improvement they made holding the Cantilever) but perhaps was a design-performance flaw?

If they did somehow screw up, doubtful they would be notifying customers to return thier Cartridges for exchange, etc.

While my Ruby 3, as you know is right beneath your LP, and sounds OK-pretty decent, IMO it neither knocks my socks off as of yet, which it should for the price, and IMO too, lacks some of the qualities (slam, midrange beauty, and balance) my much cheaper Benz Glider HO possessed.

Seems like this Cartridge does surprise me at times, depending on the recording, and seems a bit more "picky-particular" with recordings than the Glider was.
It seems to be said, that a low output MC perhaps puts a Phono Stage to a more critical test than a high output Cartridge does?

I would assume as well, after 150 hours of play, your Cartridge "should've" bloomed, and broken in by now? Mark

..and yet, The Absolute Sound or Stereophile exclaimed the LP as truely something special and put it in their highest category. I'm going to continue my quest to mke this thing work. I'll report my progress

I still think gain is your answer. It is the only significant change between the two carts. It(gain) has always been the source of my disappointment with low output mcs'. The output level of the H was like a moving magnet. The Lp is near the lowest you would see in a mc. That has to make a huge difference.

It could also be that I have always found HP's all out recommendations to be highly system dependent. Moreover in upgrading, you expected the the LP to be the same as the H only better. It maybe they went for a diffewrnt sound. I have found this to be frequently true. It is not as easy one might think to design a no holds barred product.

If your experimentations with gain does not reveal satisfying results, I would look at the finer details of the mounting of the benz LP. I have commented before in other posts, the LP is sensitive to tracking force and also to VTA. If the LP is setup to play for 140-160 gram records and you set a 200gram on it, I do notice changes in performances, causing me to either lower tracking force due to increased thickness of the record (As per Michael Fremers' tip on the Vinyl essentials DVD), altering VTA to some small degree. This minor tweak does work and it seems like a trivial matter, but believe me, I have experiemented with this same cartridge from break-in to loading and tracking force/VTA settings to extract the best I could get. It is difficult to adjust VTA on the fly with the SME V tonearm I use now, but I set it to get the best parameters with a wide variety of records and using the MF tweak as needed. Try it out, it works for me and I find that dialing in a TF about 1- 1 1/2 grams lighter makes the thicker LP's come alive.

Of course your mileage may vary (YMMV).
Ciao,
Audioquest4life

Hello Audioquest,
I got a little confused at the end of your post with VTF recommendations? I'm thinking the Benz LP requires identical VTF, to my Ruby 3, and going my memory here, factory suggested range is I believe 1.8g-2.2g, correct? Are you then suggesting going perhaps lighter than 1.8g? To like what? 1.7g, or 1.6g?

I'm currently at 1.9g with the Ruby 3, and perhaps will remain here a little bit longer until I have some more hours on it. Then, as Doug Deacon suggested in another thread, I'll begin backing off VTF slowly, and listen carefully. It's a PITA with the Expressimo Weight on my Arm, dealing with a locking Allen Screw on the Weight, and there's not much room left on the Arm Stub to try Doug's suggested O-Ring trick to ever so slightly. lighten VTF.

I'm not trying to in any way hijack this thread from Stringreen, but figuring since our Cartridges are "very close brothers", we both may have mucho in common, and both have something to gain by folk's suggested advice here. Thanks all, Mark