Trans Temp W, Magic Diamond cartridges - comments

Hmmm, now I have to try a 100ohm resistor pair shunted to ground. If the signal gets louder, well then I have learned something new. I have owned a cartridge with an output of .36mv with this same pre and it did play slightly louder than the "V". Load was the same 22k. Sometimes these specs can be off though on a given sample. Sounds like I'm hearing more like .35mv. The "v" instruction manuel does indeed say .38mv/3.54cm. I'll report back later. I respect your knowledge, you were right about the VTA set-up....saved me lots of time.

Reb, I was just curious: What was the 36mv cartridge you had previously? The one that sounded good at 22K? If you don't know what its coil resistance (or internal impedance) is, I thought I'd try and look it up to see what the "formula" predicts its loading should be.

N

It was a Benz Ruby 2. Keep in mind though that the Benz line has a rolled off top end.

Reb -- I could only find an internal impedance spec for the .3mV version of the Ruby 2. It is 45 ohms (the .34mV might be a little higher.) Its loading range is spec'd at >400 ohms, and our "formula" (25 x internal impedance) predicts an optimum load at 1125 ohms, with a high-optimum of 50% more, which would equal 1700 ohms.

So you can see that, unless you did an A-B and listened carefully, you might not hear that much difference between 1700 ohms and 22k ohms. But make no mistake, there is a difference! I'm not that familiar with Benz, but if they have a rolled-off high end like you say, running them into a higher load might compensate somewhat, but you'd also be "throwing away" some low end output. How much would depend on the cartridge/arm's low end response.

I've owned more expensive cartridges, have a couple of spare VdHuls on top of my refrigerator, but I really like my Transfig. Temper V (.38mv) Very neutral without being un-musical.