Help. Wife says Teres 340 Is too bright.

Hi Art,

Yes, a starting point of 5-10 times the DCR of the cartridge is a good starting point for loading experiments, but I like to do the "unreasonable" and listen to the cartridge running "wide open" - just to set limits and to understand how the cartridge is responding.

I've recently taken to running my XV1s with no additional loading resistors on my Atmasphere MP-1 preamp, for example. Now, in the particular system it's hooked up to, the top end is a bit challenged (5" Lowther A-55 in an Azzolina horn), so I would by no means consider this a universal proclamation.

In my second room I'm running Daedalus Ulysses speakers, and my Artiisan Cadenza (OEM Benz LP) is running through a Quicksilver step-up that reflects a load of about 320 ohms to the cartridge. These speakers have an extended top end, and I find this loading to be fine.

Use the numbers as a guideline or starting point and nothing more. I'd expect that as you sort things out, that you'll migrate upwards of 100 ohms - to as high as 500 ohms, perhaps.

Cheers,
Thom

Artemus- I will also tell you that when you are running a LOMC through a step up, small changes in loading can be readily heard and I would imagine, changes in the quality of the loading resistor and the cabling.

Thom,

Don't forget he's running through stepups. Resistor values are different than with an active MC phono stage and, as Swampwalker mentioned, tiny changes are (should be) audible.

Stepups create more complexities than active MC gain stages (turns ratio? primary side loading? secondary side loading? both?). We spent years tuning stepup loading, including pairing parallel resistors to achieve intermediate values. The quality/type of resistor matters too.

Suggestion to Artemus: try some Riken Ohm resistors in place of your cheapies. If you get the right value they might remove some edge without rolling off the highs.

****

Regarding amps and power (wattage):

Maril555 gets better performance from a 150wpc BAT than from a 90wpc p-p amp. OTOH, we get better performance (despite more difficult speakers) from a 57wpc p-p Doshi/Lectron than from a 240wpc SS MF-2500A.

There's no reason to doubt these reports, so there's no correlation between these improved performances and increases in total wattage (for the reasons Lewm explained). In a typical home environment, speakers like Artemus's or even our B&W's simply do not use the full power output of a 57wpc amp, never mind 90, 150 or 240. The improvements must be attributed to other factors.

One reason the Doshi/Lectron so easily outplays the c-j is its massively overdesigned, overbuilt and well isolated power supplies. Power supply modulation by dynamic, complex signals is a major source of sonic congestion, smearing and harmonic distortions. Zero feedback is another, as Lewm mentioned. With speakers like these we don't need more power (watts). All you get from more watts is more SPL's, and we can easily surpass 100db in our room with the power we have. What we need is an amp with a very low noise and sound floor, that supplies current instantaneously and which is not prone to going muddy when the going gets tough.

I suspect Maril555's BAT is simply better at these things than his old p-p amp. The fact that it offers 150wpc vs. 90 is interesting, but not relevant with speakers like these.

Nice job on the TT rack!!! I take back the Koetsu suggestion and change it to, get her an OTL for X-mas.

Doug,
You are right about factors, other, than just a power output, having effect on the sound of the particular speaker.
And there are an examples of that statement- 18 Wt/ch Lamm ML 2.1 SET comes to mind immediately.
But, all that said, I still feel, that the SPL, that can be achieved with a particular wattage, has very little to do with the quality of sound, reproduced by a speaker. It has more to do with a control, the power amp has over the drivers, dynamic range, such elusive characteristics, as "an ease and effortlessness of the musical presentation",
microdynamics, etc.
Speaking with Victor Khomenko of BAT about this very issue, he once mentioned driving his own Avantgarde Trios (106 dB efficiency), with TWO BAT VK-150 SEs per channel at some point, and hearing an improvement over a single 150 per channel.
My own experience confirms his position, as well.
I have yet to run into a situation, where more watts (everything else being equal), didn't make a positive change, and much less being detrimental to a sound.
Just a personal observation.