MC Load Resistance

Dertonearm, Re your sentiments on the hybrid cascode, we have another subject where you and Atmasphere are in agreement. Ralph also recommended that I stick with tubes in both positions. I have no axe to grind; I know for a fact that the topology can sound very good either way. The MAT02 is pretty special in this application, so conclusions drawn using other solid state devices on the bottom of the cascode may not be so applicable. But I am a neophyte in these matters and not qualified to argue either way, except based on my own particular listening experience with this set-up. If I get the energy, I could go back to an all-ECC99 cascode and use a low gain SUT to make up the difference.

Lewm, please do not get me wrong. A hybrid casode phono input stage is favored by many and for good reason. Technically seen it looks like the best of both worlds and addresses many important technical aspects and solutions in a very smart and tempting manner.
But - as always in life (sic...) there is a price to pay.
That price is NOT high, it is not anything really worth mention, but in the end it is the very tiniest point which keeps the doors of (sonic ...) heaven closed for the demanding listener.
There are sonic trade-offs (as in ALL designs) in ANY hybrid cascode phono input stage. Its open, airy, fast, dynamic and direct sounding. It gives you gain to burn the house and rock the street.
Yes.
But regardless of the tube or FET/J-FET/Bipolar etc. in use - you loose on color, you loose on 3-dimensionality, you loose on micro detail.
The picture is clear, in bright light and alive if a little bit artificial - but less convincing, less like the real thing.

I have favored hybrid cascode (and all-tube cascode...) phono-inputs for a long time and years before they showed up in custom gear in high-end showrooms.
Similar as with my earlier years preference for active phono input stages, I have gone a long way to find out that this is not yet the end of the road.

One should always remember, that the sonic impression is never a lonely one - its the impression we get from a certain set-up and is always depending on the periphery.
You do favor the hybrid cascode phono input now - in the set-up you have put together and listen to with joy.
This is fine and correct.
This may however change (as preferences, individual parts of the set-up or room conditions may change) and you may go back to the original or an input-stage with a different tube one day and may find it suits you better.
Maybe - not necessarily.

Dear Dertonarm, The comment of an cseptic (?) by the first evidence that sigaret-smoking causes cancer was:'everybody
will swich to pipe'.
Now I am not sure if LOMC causes cancer but,looking at your
exchange with Lewm,I am sure that LOMC already causes considarable headache.Shall we all switch to MM carts and follow Raul? I can't remember any comment from you about the MM carts (Also wenn Sie so freundlich sein wollen?).
Then we have some kind of an paradox. The most of us prefer
the LOMC. Do we prefer difficult problems obove the simple?
I.e. there are no (intellectual) rewards for solving simple
problems.

Regards,

Dear Nandric, plainly spoken: - "we, the people" do prefer the more demanding (complex, problem ridden...) above the simplified because of better performance on the large scale.
Would MMs really be that good, no one would mess with MC - especially not with LOMC.
There are good MMs out there, past and present, but the best can still not compete with the best MCs (...and I was pro-MM all my life and still am..... but they simply are no real match).

God - I hope that this doesn't brings up all the MM-lunatics against me.....

You guys are getting interesting and funny too. Well, thank you for sharing some of this empowerment.

Messing with MCs problems, as messing with any on-going problem has a 'pay-off', otherwise no-one would bother. As long as it is fun and entertaining and not frustrating, it's jolly good entertainment.

As to the MM side of things, it also should better be fun and not any of this competitive BS like: like my 'spanner' is longer than yours...' etc.

I think a lot of phono-pres are ultimately not up to the task of really GOOD! and COMPLETE! low-signal amplification.
Just pumping up the gain without loosing some of the incredibly delicate detailed LOMC signal output is a VERY demanding task.
In this case an SUT will make a difference, or an MM in its own unique way also.

I find in my (all) SS system, MM carts generally have more 'information density' in the mid-range, than MCs provide through my phono-modules. There is something very natural and touching in how MMs handle that area. The interesting thing for me is, that *ANY* resistive MC loading makes for some of this 'coldness', experienced with CD reproduction -- and it maybe simply a more 'favourable' impedance match when using a step-up that improves on this.

With MMs the trade-of mostly (or always?) is some degree of lower-treble to upper-treble lack of definition. The sort of thing that slightly lesser recordings often might show.

With excellent recordings this 'lack' is hardly noticeable, unless in an A/B shoot-out, which comes with its own set of problems.

So I say, enjoy both! as both have there characteristic strength and weaknesses (a bit like blonds and brunettes :-)

Cheers,
Axel