Phono Preamp and Cartridge selection


I have on order a new VPI Prime turntable. It will be used with a Mac MA-6600 integrated amp and a set of Revel F-30 speakers. Do I go tube vs SS? Looking for suggestions for MC cartridge and phono preamp. Hoping to be in the $2500-$3000 range. Thanks.
rkbcpa55
Ralph,

Even if that's true (I lack the electrical expertise to discuss the point), my personal LOMC listening indicates that loading at 47K is optimal only with a minority of phono stages... typically, higher end units at higher end prices.

In most cases, including some all tube + SUT setups, showing the cartridge a lower load consistently resulted in better balance between the frequency extremes.

Perhaps your statement is true of better designs (like yours, I trust)? One might suppose that some of the "many people [who] simply don't know that RFI is at the root of the loading issue" may be phono preamp designers!
Hello Doug, it is indeed true and I am not the only one to say so by any means. Talk to Stig at Lyra and he will tell you the same thing and has posted to that effect on this forum.

You are correct that a low impedance is what is needed to detune the RF circuit. Also, SUTs don't pass RFI very well at all, so they can help too. But I find that SUTs also impair detail, so I prefer to do without them if I can.

You are also correct that only a few phono sections don't need the loading (obviously ours are examples in that regard), the thing is, its easy and cheap to fix this problem but as you surmised most phono preamp manufacturers (and quite well-known at that) don't even understand what is causing the problem so they are not in a position to fix it. So the myth survives quite easily.

One note- high output MM cartridges are different in that they are very much affected by loading at audio frequencies! But oddly enough, you hardly ever hear about anyone doing it, which is really too bad since many MM can easily keep up with much more expensive MC cartridges once the loading issue is addressed.