Anyone try the replica B-60 Fidelity Research VTA?

Dear JCarr, Touche'. The problem with my statement is that it was general and followed Audpulse's specific comment about a 47K load on an MC. Are you suggesting that the load resistor never has any impact on frequency response of an MC? If so, teach me. I thought that very low values of load resistor (i.e., high loads) can dampen the HF response, of some MCs in some cases with some loads. So if I am correct, then perhaps there should be an industry-standard ratio of load resistance to cartridge internal resistance, for published tests. Anyway, who ever publishes curves these days, for cartridges? Even S'phile takes the subjective judgment of its reviewers as gospel.

My main point was that unless the load resistor is much closer in value to the internal resistance of the MC cartridge (where 47K would of course be maybe more than 1000X the internal resistance and could have no effect at all on gain), or certainly if it's less than the internal resistance, it will not have an appreciable effect on gain.

Ugghh! Syntax (the linguistic, not the person) is my bete noir today. In my second paragraph above, I mean to say that the load resistor can affect gain if it's value approaches, equals, or is less than that of the cartridge.

Hi Lew: Since I have already written about this topic on the What's best forum, and a kind soul there was willing to convert my charts into gifs, I recommend that you read the following thread on the SME 30/2 turntable, from pages 3 to the end. The charts are on page 6, and they will show you what kinds of frequencies are affected when the load resistor value is changed.

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?14082-Sme-30-2/page3

kind regards, jonathan

Dear J.Carr, From your reaction I see that you also consider our forum and more in particular this thread as a life thretening affair. I fear that my following request
will be even more dangerous. However the question is connected with our previous 'dispute' about the modern versus the old lathes. What is your opinion about the difference between the 'old-fashioned' FR-64 S and the(new) Ikeda IT-345? I own both but am very reluctant to try the later because of Syntax . He is 2 m big and lives in my neighbourhood but not in yours. BTW the context is similar to Dover's 'Holy water' in the sense that for some among us the FR-64S is the 'Holy Grail'.

Dear JCarr,
This is what I found, quoting your quoter:
"Regarding loading of low-impedance MC cartridges, in general I recommend trying to reduce any capacitances present between cartridge and phono stage input to as little as possible. Use the lowest-capacitance phono cable that seems decent, turn off any additional capacitance in the input stage of the phono amplifier etc.

The reduced capacitance should make it possible for you use a wider range of loading impedances without having the sound go bright, peaky or thin-bodied. Conversely, any excess capacitance between cartridge and phono stage input will almost certainly force you into choosing lower loading impedances to save your ears.

Being able to use higher-value loading impedances should allow you to hear more of the dynamics and resolution that the cartridge is capable of, while using lower-value loading impedances will limit how much of the cartridge's dynamics and resolution that you can usefully extract."

So now I am puzzled; were you inferring that my statement (essentially, low load resistances that get into the range of less than a multiple of the internal resistance can affect FR of some cartridges) was correct or incorrect? I said nothing about capacitance. You seem to be saying here that if the capacitance is minimized, then one's choice of load resistance is widened. I don't see a conflict.