Questions about a new Ruby 2 cartridge

I too found that vta made a big difference. It will be bright sounding if the vta is too high.

I bought my table already set up with the new benz 2. It sounded very good as it was. Because it was FREE, I had my table tuned/adjusted by a local turntable god (and good friend). He's set up over 100 tables and spent over an hour on it. This made a HUGE improvement. The cartridge is not bright nor edgy at all.

For the loading, from the reviews I have read they settle on 22K or 47K. I use 47K. I use a basis 2500/gram2.2/qf tonearm/passlabsono.

I used the Ruby, too.
It needs about 50 hours playing time.
First it is like you wrote but it will become better and better. After 100 h it is great.
all new cart. need some playing time, some more, some less.
Your 47 k setting is the right one ( when other
setting - lower- sounds better, then is something wrong in your system ).
In your manual from the Klyne there is the right setting listed.
Definetly, VTA is important, I used it a touch higher in the back.

Thomasheisig, I wonder if you could explain your comment above, about system set-up being incorrect elsewhere if your Benz sounds better at, say, 1k ohm loading than 47k ohm. This is not my experience, not to the best of my knowledge what electrical theory would dictate, and not what B-M recommends.

B-M says to set loading at 400 ohms or below for the Ruby 2, although on my Glider M2 I have found it best to about double their recommendation of 200 or under, so Phil's suggestion above could be right on (allowing for variations due to differing phono cable resistances and overall system balance). The posters advocating 22k or 47k are in reality all recommending one thing: running the cartridge unloaded. In fact, all values above somewhere in the range of about 5-10k ohm will accomplish this, and will all sound alike. Frankly, I think if one's set-up doesn't sound right unless the cart is exhibiting the rising top octave and loose image focus that results from unloading an MC, *that's* when something must be wrong elsewhere.

Interesting, Zaikesman. The Benz Lukaschek phono pre is fixed at 22K, which is probably where some of this came from. But if you're right...

I just bought this pre used for my L2 cartridge. Don't have it yet. Hope it works out.

47 k load

Well, it is a point of view like the opinions about best speakers, best amp and so on.
From my experience with top equipment the last 10 years I went always back to 47 k load for most MC carts, there is the most information, FM Acoustics has a input module for 100k.
I tried a few times with adjustable phono stages, when, the more I went down from 47 k, the less information was heard. Right, as long you use something above 1K it is not that inferior, but below 1K it is easy to find out, when there is a good, open system.
I always wondered about recommendations for whatever, say 45 ohm, or 122,5 ohm or 187 ohm, reviewers like to do that, to show their ' competence '.
The only way I can imagine, that this sounds good, is, when someone owns a very analytic system, which normally is not a joy to listen to. Here the damping and cutting the high frequency information is indeed a argument, that this setting sounds good, it sounds good in their sharp systems.
A 47K load is in these systems not a joy, because most think it is too bright and overanalytic, no analog ' warmth'.
Next is, phonostages which work the way they should ( not dead and lifeless ) with MC and 47 K are extremely rare, they are very difficult to design ( CTC, Klyne, Vendetta ....), so most manufacturers make more 'advertisement', that this ( 47K ) is not useful, theirs- maybe 50-250 ohm - are ok for all systems.
And that is nonsense.
I don't want to start a discussion about that, everyone thinks maybe different, it was just my experience form my systems and from a few others, which sounds really good.