Cousinbillyl, seems like most of your questions are answered but the loading. I think you will find the loading to be not that critical. With LOMC cartridges, the inductance of the cartridge and the capacitance of the cable can form a tuned radio frequency circuit. What the load is doing is reducing the 'Q' of the circuit- detuning it. It has to be right value to do this.
However, a lot has to do with the RF immunity of the phono preamp. So in general you will find that the more the preamp is upset by ultrasonic RF noise, the more critical the load becomes. With our stuff the big thing you hear is reduced noise in the background- not too much on the tonality side. This suggests that the phono stage does not care too much if RF is present (as happens with an unloaded cartridge) at its input.
Clear as mud?? -have a good weekend!
However, a lot has to do with the RF immunity of the phono preamp. So in general you will find that the more the preamp is upset by ultrasonic RF noise, the more critical the load becomes. With our stuff the big thing you hear is reduced noise in the background- not too much on the tonality side. This suggests that the phono stage does not care too much if RF is present (as happens with an unloaded cartridge) at its input.
Clear as mud?? -have a good weekend!
