Cartridge Loading

Short:
47 kohm when you have a preamp which can do it without sounding thin, dead and analytical 1kohm when you have a normal preamp below 200ohms when you have a very analytical and harsh sounding high end System and you want to soften it. or MM Phono and a matching high quality Step Up.

This short guide defines my experience to a tee: Jasmine LP2.0SE > DV10x5 > Rega P3.

The Jasmine has 4 settings (30ohms; 100ohms; 250ohms; 1Kohms). At the suggested cart load for the DV10x5 (1K) it's way to bright, highs distort and bass is muddy - in my current system. Same but to a lesser degree at 250ohms. 100ohms works best in my system. Well below the recommended load impedance but with the best over all results.

Listen and learn.
I decided to try going back down on the loading.I went back to 1k after going all the way up to 47k.
While listening to choral music;I started noticing that every time a word ended with "s" it had a strident snake like sound.So I went down to 10k then 1k.The snakes went away and the mids jumped right out!

Next stop 450k.

e

Just changed my whole setup. I just finished building a SUT MC tranformer(I plan on starting a string on DIY SUT). The setting that I am using comes to 200 ohm.
This transformer just took my analog rig to another level.
Much better dynamics,lower sound floor,more extended frequency response.Individual instruments and voices are much more coherent.
Micro and macro details like I have never had.
This is fun.
It feels like I have a whole new library of music to listen to.
Sorry for going a little off topic,but analog is so much fun.

e

George,I forgot to answer your question. Of course there is no simple answer but I will say that the Lukashek phono stage by Benz comes loaded at 1000ohm.So that might be a good place to start.

e

Hello George,

I have some experience with the Heed Quasar and a cloned XOno combined with a Benz ACE L and a Benz Glider L2 S. With both systems I ended up with 1k at the XOno and 470ohms at the Heed. I didn't like 20k or even 47k. Too much hiss in the highs.