I forgot. How would this affect the resonance of the cartridge in a particular tonearm. It sound like lowering the load might lower the resonance frequency?
Cartridge loading
Presently I am using a ZU/Denon DL103 mc cartridge with ZU Audio's highest tolerances. I had this cartridge mounted on my VPI Prime and after going through all the various loading combinations, I settled on 200 ohms. I was always satisfied with my choice of setting. I no longer have the Prime and now use the Technics SL1200G turntable. After having the same cartridge mounted and aligned by the dealer, I inserted it into my system and enjoyed the sound immensely, never touching the 200 ohm setting.
Yesterday I was listening to vinyl most of the day and for some reason I found the sound to be better than ever, mostly in the treble area. The highs had shimmer when needed and I had played the same records many times before on the Prime and they never sounded as good as they did yesterday. Just for the heck of it, I checked the cartridge loading and found it was now set at 1000 ohms. As I said, when I put the Technics into the system, I never bothered changing the loading which was at 200 ohms as it was the same cartridge, just a different turntable.
I believe I know what happened, when I last used the tone controls on my McIntosh preamp, (you have to shuffle through a menu) I must have inadvertently put the cartridge loading at 1000 ohms. It truly sounds fantastic, better than I ever thought possible. The Bass is still very deep and taut, midrange is the same but the treble, oh my, so much better. Now the million dollar question is why should it now sound better at 1000 ohms, when it sounded great before at 200 ohms? Can the tonearm on the Technics have an effect on cartridge loading? I always thought it was all dependent on the preamp, amp and speakers. What am I missing here? I am very curious to know. The specs for my cartridge say greater than 50 ohms for loading.
Thanks
Yesterday I was listening to vinyl most of the day and for some reason I found the sound to be better than ever, mostly in the treble area. The highs had shimmer when needed and I had played the same records many times before on the Prime and they never sounded as good as they did yesterday. Just for the heck of it, I checked the cartridge loading and found it was now set at 1000 ohms. As I said, when I put the Technics into the system, I never bothered changing the loading which was at 200 ohms as it was the same cartridge, just a different turntable.
I believe I know what happened, when I last used the tone controls on my McIntosh preamp, (you have to shuffle through a menu) I must have inadvertently put the cartridge loading at 1000 ohms. It truly sounds fantastic, better than I ever thought possible. The Bass is still very deep and taut, midrange is the same but the treble, oh my, so much better. Now the million dollar question is why should it now sound better at 1000 ohms, when it sounded great before at 200 ohms? Can the tonearm on the Technics have an effect on cartridge loading? I always thought it was all dependent on the preamp, amp and speakers. What am I missing here? I am very curious to know. The specs for my cartridge say greater than 50 ohms for loading.
Thanks
Showing 5 responses by mijostyn
After meticulous Tonearm set up I have always just used the manufacturer's recommendation. Switching around on an ARC phono amp I can not make out any difference in sound quality. Ralph, how does cartridge impedance affect all of this? I assume on a good phono amp not at all. If a higher load increases the motor's stiffness why wouldn't a cartridge track better at lower loads? |
Another issue. Brighter and louder are frequently mistaken as better sound. All this has been exhaustively demonstrated. If I boost volume on an identical source 1 db. People will mistakenly think it has better sound. Same for high frequencies. If I boost them a few db people will think it sounds better. People who are use to listening to a system that has the high end jacked will think a more naturally balanced system sounds dull and lifeless. Very few of us know exactly what our systems are doing. They have not run an impulse test and graphed it out. Even fewer of us have the ability to modify the frequency response of our systems in a controlled fashion to know what any given frequency response change maneuver will result in. This results in a classic case of the blind leading the blind. It's fine to have preferences but saying they are more right than someone else's preferences is inappropriate and quite possibly dead wrong. |
Syntax and intactaudio. There are a few other factors involve that help to explain these interactions. Your views are forgetting to take these factors into account. All this is explained nicely here
http://www.hagtech.com/loading.html. Depending on the inductive and capacitive loads there may be an advantage in higher load/damping which means lower resistance. This is shown very nicely at this site. There are certainly instances where running a low resistance (high damping) will roll off the frequency response prematurely but too high a resistance (low damping) can create huge high frequency resonance peaks that will overload a phono amp. Just running any MC cartridge at 47K is asking for it. |