mc cartridge loading

I use the same cartridge as the OP, in conjunction with a Herron VTPH-2 phono stage.  After briefly trying 1K and 47K loading I settled on no loading, meaning the nearly infinite input impedance of the Herron's FET-based input stage.  Keith Herron recommends that with his particular phono stage that nearly infinite impedance will be optimal with many cartridges.

Also, FWIW, I would characterize the differences I noted between the three loading conditions as being recording dependent, relatively minor, and hard to pin down.  I suspect that the difference between the lowest value I tried (1K) and 100 ohms would have been much more profound, and probably not for the better in conjunction with the VTPH-2.

Regards,
-- Al
 

The PH-1 is solid state, Lew, and according to Stereophile's review (which was favorable and made no mention of the high input capacitance) "the circuit itself appears to be based on Burr-Brown OPA2134 op-amp chips." I suppose that the high capacitance reflects a capacitor being placed across the input, for whatever reason. Perhaps (just guessing) to apply such a heavy load at radio frequencies that RF energy would be essentially kept out of the circuitry altogether.

Best regards,
-- Al
 

Thanks Ralph (Atmasphere).  That all makes sense to me.

I would just add that the generally unspecified input capacitance of the phono stage will add to the capacitance of the cable, and may also be significant in some cases.  In fact one phono stage that I recall reading about (the AcousTech PH-1) has a specified input capacitance in LOMC mode of 10,000 pf!  And probably not coincidentally a fixed input resistance of 100 ohms.  Why one would design a phono stage in that manner is beyond me.

Best regards,
-- Al