Ortofon Per Windfeld Load Impedance?

Zieman, Would you care to characterize the differences between the Per Windfield and the Jubilee? I've been thinking about one or the other myself. Thanks.

Dear Taylor, Thanks for the info. I am sorry to learn that I will have to spend "all the money" to get what I want. Raul, have you heard these two? Zieman, do you agree with Taylor's characterization of the two cartridges? If this usurps the thread, I apologize, and please ignore me.

Audiofeil, In fairness, Zieman may have been thinking of cable capacitance, which does play a role in loading the cartridge but which is less of an issue with MC cartridges, as opposed to MMs. "Impedance" comes from both resistance and reactance, the latter due to capacitance or inductance, which I am sure you know. So the pure DC resistance of a phono cable does not tell the whole story.

On another note, where are Ortofon cartridges manufactured? I'm used to thinking of them as English, but I may be wrong. Maybe Japan?

Here's what you can do, if you don't have a scope and a generator. Buy a Cardas test record and a digital multimeter. They are both good tools for any audiophile to have and can be bought for not much moola. The Cardas has a band that plays a 1kHz tone at 0db. (DON'T play it over your spkrs, unless the volume is turned off or way down.) Start with a load resistor that is way higher than what's likely to be "critical". While playing the test tone, measure AC voltage at the output of your phono stage and record it. Now reduce the value of the resistor stepwise, and keep measuring ACV at the output of the phono stage, until you first detect a drop in voltage. Go back up from there by one step and you've probably got a pretty good approximation of "critical damping".

Ralph's point about characteristic impedance is a very important one. IMO, it is another reason why some cables sound different from others and why cables that sound good in one system may sound awful in other systems. I have found for example in my system that low characteristic impedance (<10 ohms) is very important for good sonics. I think this is why Nordost cables, the early ones of which had very high characteristic impedance, were just unbearable in my system, so bright they could make my ears bleed, as the saying goes. Characteristic Z is independent of cable length, by the way.

Axelwahl, How do you like the pw compared to the Jubilee? Is it worth the extra bucks? I thought Ortofon marketed the PW as kind of a super-Jubilee, so it is surprising that you are finding that the PW needs a very different load resistor. Thanks.