too bad Michael has retired and went to Florida....I always enjoyed talking with him. I'm using an Ortofon with Ayre, and after experimenting (a pain with most, but Ayre has those screw in connectors for resistors) I found 10K to sound better to my ears. I would always say to satisfy your own preferences. ( Gary has replaced Michael....another great guy)
MC cartridge loading: still baffled
I am using a low output moving coil cartridge- a retipped Linn Troika. Recommended loading is 100-200 ohms which I have always followed. My phono pre is an Ayre P-5xe and set to the highest gain. Years ago, Michael at Ayre said most moving coil cartridges sounded best when loaded at 47k ohm using their phono pre. I just got around to trying this setting and it does sound more open and better to me. Lately, I am discovering that much of the dogma that I have been following isn't necessarily correct, at least with my system and to my ears. Another example I found recently is that my arm/cartridge performs just fine with very little anti-skate force as opposed to just picking a setting equal to VTF as universally suggested.
Back to the loading question: is the proper loading more a function of the phono pre or the cartridge itself?
Back to the loading question: is the proper loading more a function of the phono pre or the cartridge itself?