Tube Preamp Paired with Tube Phono Stage?

Thank you, Atmasphere. This does help with understanding the issue. I don't want to keep dragging this topic, but I must ask: if Fremer (or anyone else for that matter) hears clearly definable differences in the quality of the sound, not the noise, with different resistive loads when using an MC cartridge, is he full of it?

Jtwrace,

The Andros is a beauty and everyone raves about it, but it is also nearly twice the price of the Chinook, so they are really not in the same league. If you can afford the Andros, it seems it's an easy choice, at least on paper. elast

I believe Jonathan Carr, the designer of the Lyra cartridges, has stated that modern cartridges do not need loading to tame ringing and a response peak because those phenomena occur at ultrasonic frequencies; but, loading may be beneficial with phonostages that are prone to overloading from such peaks. Where overloading is not a problem, he preferred the wide open sound of using very little loading (e.g., 47k ohms).

I don't think Fremer is "full of it." One can quite readily hear the effects of increased loading. Loading acts like a form of tone control--reducing high frequencies. For my taste, with my phonostages, I prefer much less loading than is usually recommended; too much loading (i.e., a lower numeric value for the resistor) causes a significant loss of "air" on top.

The late Allen Wright was also among those reputable designers who advocated "no load", or 47K ohms in other words, for use with LOMC cartridges. I am sometimes astounded to read what some listeners prefer in terms of phono load resistors, often so low in value as to significantly drain off signal voltage to ground, i.e., where the load R is much less than 10X the internal resistance of the cartridge.

So we have support for loading at 100 ohms and 47k ohms, and possibly everything in between. So to summarize, it depends... :-)

Actusreus, if Fremer is not 'full of it', he was hearing those differences due to issues with the **phono section(s)** rather than the cartridges. 47K, 100 ohms, the cartridge does not care. I run my cartridges (Transfiguration Orpheus, ZYX Universe) at 47k with no worries, can't really tell the difference if I use 100 ohms. But our stuff is stable in the presence of Radio Frequency energy, which is in fact what this is about.

Jonathan Carr's comments can be trusted regardless of the LOMC.

You are partially correct with your summary in your last post. The entire summary should read: "So to summarize, it depends on the preamp."