MM cartridges and capacitance


Can someone explain to me why an MM cartridge would "want" to see more than the minimum possible level of capacitance loading?

This question is provoked by a lot of commentary on "that" "MMs are great" thread, and a question someone just asked, and the fact that I have two phono stages (granted, older Japanese stages) which have multiple capacitance settings and I have never gotten a "better" result from being at the high end rather than the low end. In many cases, it doesn't seem to make a difference, but so far I have not gotten an improvement from raising the capacitance setting.
t_bone

Showing 3 responses by stanwal

Adding capacitance will in some cases flatten the frequency response of the cartridge. Shure V-15s use to have a midrange droop that could be corrected by the proper loading. Ortofons use to come from the factory with a "cap 210" which slipped over the pins in Europe; I was a dealer for them then and tried to get some but the American importer had never heard of them. As you have probably seen almost everything about phono cartridges in contentious but I thing it safe to say that in some cases at least loading can be of considerable importance.
DB systems apparently still makes the kit that they offered in the 80s, I just sold my old one. It was mentioned in Stereophile in the last year or so. I think it is $69.95, not a bad price considering it was $39.95 then. DB is a good company but one of the stealth variety, I had no idea that they were still going.
Here is their address; I was a dealer for them years ago but have had no connection for over 20 years.

DB Systems
PO BOX 460
214 Main Street
Rindge, NH 03461
- USA -
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phone: (603) 899-5121

Established in 1975, DB Systems is a manufacturer of high quality home audio equipment, including preamps, power amps, electronic crossovers, tone control, head amp, phase inverter, and accessories. We also sell test CDs. We take Mastercard, VISA, Discover and Paypal.
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