Questions about a new Ruby 2 cartridge

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.

i'm using a VPI Aries,JMW arm w/ a ruby 2h, and the pass labs ono phono stage. you have to let the ruby break in before you listen critically, cause until it's played awhile you are not hearing what you will end up with at all. the vta is critical for any cart i think. i've found i do keep it in the low range w/the ruby. you should double check your entire set-up of the cart though, using the vpi tool and a stylus gauge, and checking the azimuth (left/right tilt) very carefully by eye. (sibilance dissappeared for me when i got that level).
47 k is where i landed when i set it up months ago. but just last week i started thinking it was less than perfect, and i spent a long time experimenting, moving up and down from 100 ohm. after a brief flirtation with 120 ohm, during which a japanese "pro use" pressing of abbey road listened to under etymotic research er4s's earphones sounded "smoother, with less brittle highs and more upper mids" (this from my notes) i went back to my speakers and also tried my grado rs1 headphones and something was missing at 120. so i switched all over the place, then to 47k again. 47k sounded spot on.
what this taught me was that the ety's, supposedly the most accurate headphone made, are either revealing a sound quality that's there which i don't like, or are not so accurate and are adding a bit of brightness. when i moved away from 47k loading it cut these highs, thus appealing to me in the moment. but only for some recordings and only under the etymotics. at 47k i hear it all and the imaging is at it's best. with no "rising top octave". no question.