Your expertise is needed


My Phono stage's Input Impedance is 3 Ohm.The cartridge I am thinking of buying has a coil resistance of 16 Ohms.
Can you tell me the ill effects if any, of using a 16 ohm cartridge with a 3 ohm phono stage.
goldeneraguy
My Phono stage's Input Impedance is 3 Ohm.

I very much doubt that is correct. Phono stage input impedances are much higher, commonly 100 ohms for moving coil stages, and sometimes much more, and 47,000 ohms for moving magnets.

But to answer your question, assuming it is a moving coil cartridge: Overall volume would be severely attenuated, and the upper treble would be sharply rolled off.

Regards,
-- Al
Al,The Phono Stage is an ESE Labs Nibiru and it indeed has a 3 ohm input impedance.Your reply referencing a MC cartridge is the answer I was looking for.Much thanks
Hmm, yes I took a look at the ESE Labs website pages on the Nibiru, and it indeed specifies 3 ohms. It seems to be oriented towards extremely low output moving coil cartridges, which would presumably have very few turns in the coils, and therefore very low resistance and inductance, which would in turn improve compatibility with heavy (low-value) loading.

The unusually low input impedance seems to derive from what they describe as a current sink/current domain/transimpedance design approach. I have no idea how to reconcile that, though, with their statement that it is suitable for cartridges of up to 40 ohms impedance, if severe volume attenuation is to be avoided. And such cartridges are also likely to have considerable coil inductance, resulting in the severe treble rolloff that I mentioned, in combination with the severe loading.

You might find the following to be of interest:

http://www.hagtech.com/loading.html

Regards,
-- Al