MC loading at 47K

Thats it. I used Dale RN 65 resistors. Not too expensive and not noisy, used by some fancy pants designers. I like the one piece body Y adapter as it is a shorter path and makes for neater wire dress made by monster and others. Post your results Id like to hear what you settle on.

Look at Audiofeil's answers very closely. Perhaps I am mistaken, but your OP suggests that you don't understand how loading a MC cartridge works. Running a cartridge into a "wide-open" 47K load, means that the cartridge sees less resistance than at 200, 500, 1000, etc. ohms. My experience with many different cartridges, and preamps over the years has been that I tend to prefer 47K loading for MC's. Anything much lower than that has usually (not always) made the cartridge unnaturally thick sounding, with loss of fine inner texture to the sound. As Audiofeil says, it is really a matter of personal taste in the context of your particular system. If your system tends to the bright/thin side, you will probably prefer a lower load value.

The option leaves the OP of this thread to choose any cartridge he would like. We're not saying he needs to do this. He is not stuck with 47k only, in other words.

Here is the Manley Steelhead manual. You could check out their options.[http://www.manleylabs.com/PDF/HIFI_Manuals/Hi-Fi/STEELHEAD.pdf]