Benz Ebony LP loading

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

Hi Mark - if you can't back off your weight any more, you can always add a bit of blutak stuck on the rear weight to make it heavier.

Stringreen,
I find the fact taht the "H" sounded much better interesting. My Ruby2 was about 6yrs. old with low hours. I picked up a used LP one with 100hrs. or so. I still had my Ruby2 to compare both. The LP was better all around I thought. It was more transparent and had better control of the treble. Though in my room that means nothing. In my friends system my Ruby2 is going through a Quicksilver stepup trans. and just smokes my LP (in my room) regarding the treble.
My phonostage in my preamp has 56dB of gain. It was enough for my Benz. Though loading it at 470 ohms ceratinly dropped that down a tad. I have had 5 or 6 different phonostages in my system for trial. They were all ss and all performed differently. Recently I added a AR PH5 tubed phonostage and really like it. Anything to soften my troublesome treble. It has 58dB gain. I think it helps to have that xtra 2dB. 60dB should be enough for the LP. Every phonostage shows its hand when loading a cart. No two even at the same loading sound the same (relative to the loading that is). I recently had the SIM Audio in my system and would never have considered setting it at 47k. My ears would have bled.
I would try 1000 ohms and see how that sounds. In my sys. 1000 ohms is just slightly different than 47k. If 1000 doesn't do it for you try something btwn 1000 and 500. If 500 seemed too damped you may see bigger differences btwn 1000-500 than I do. I wish I had a 20k or 10k selection. That might just do it for me. You could try the stepup using the MM section. I may try that myself since my friend has one. At least you know that the "H" sounded good. You can always go back to it. I wish I had one to try.

Hi Markd51,

That is what I was saying to do, back off the tracking force from whatever setting you are using now and do it gradually. I may have gotten a little long winded in my last post trying to explain all of the minute things I have experimented with to get this cartridge to sound its best, and when it does, you will know. I think the Lp is a sensitive cartidge and dialing it in takes some trial and error. I love sharing information with others who need help or have not tried things I did to make something work right.

Bottom line, yes, back off to about 1.7gm and listen to an LP, the same one preferrably and at the same place on the LP, take something you will want to reference with a wide dynamic range if possible to hear some cymbals, horns and drums. Then get a reference point and make your adjustment. Make sure you know what your initial tracking force setting was and then start experimenting. You may want to make a bold adjustment to see if there is a change in the sound characteristic at first instead of making all of the minute changes. I am interested in finding out what the cause could be, because I felt I had the same experience with some LP's that varied in thickness and this became even more noticeable as I put more hours on the LP.

Good luck,
Audioquest4life