Any of you experiment with optimal VTA for Benz Micro Cartridges

@prof

Atmasphere gave an informative post in another thread concerning cartridge loading. I always thought loading was necessitated by the cartridge design. But this is not the case according to atmasphere. It is the stability of the phono preamp which determines the necessity. Here’s his post from that thread

@atmasphere

I’m just curious as to why you said loading does not make a difference with the 4D, and with low ouput MC cartridges with low internal impedance in general.

The reason why has nothing to do with the cartridge directly. It has to do with the stability of the preamp.

The inductance of the winding of the cartridge is in parallel with the capacitance of the tone arm cable. This forms a Radio Frequency tuned circuit (also known as a tank circuit). The tank circuit is set into oscillation by the energy produced by the cartridge. It resonates in this case at several MHz and thus produces RFI (Radio Frequency Interference). Some preamps don’t like that and don’t sound right as a result.

The loading resistor detunes the tank circuit enough that it will no longer resonate. Then the preamp sounds fine.

If however, the preamp is properly designed and is stable with RFI, then the loading resistor will be found to have no effect.

IOW, if you need the loading resistor to make your cartridge sound right, it points to a stability problem in the preamp.

You can find this topic discussed elsewhere on this site and others. Jonathan Carr of Lyra and Jim Hagerman have discussed it at length as well as myself. Jim has a good article online:
http://www.hagtech.com/loading.html

-which goes into the math of it.

We did not use any loading on our ZYX- our preamps are stable so there is no need.

One additional point- when loading the cartridge, you are making it do work. This stiffens up the cantilever, changing its tracking characteristic- it will be less compliant; that’s not a good thing. You are better off with a stable phono preamp.

Notice the last paragraph. I suspect the open and airy sound I have heard on the Ebony L and now the Zyx are a result of the better tracking of the stylus (needle)

BTW, the Ebony L is indeed hard to find any info on. I suspect that only a few were sold in the US with the majority sold in Europe & Asia. I’ve only heard of one other poster who has/had one When you get it set up I believe you will be very satisfied.

Also, I believe I had my arm parallel to the record for VTA. I always start there and try moving the base (pivot end) down slightly to see if I hear any difference. But parallel usually works for me. Play with it a bit. But don’t become overly obsessive

@artemus_5

I just noticed your additional post.  Thanks again for that info!

@atmasphere  is totally correct.  I decided to try my Benz Woos SL wide open (@47k) about a week ago.  To my surprise, I love it.  The Sutherland 20/20 phono pre is stable enough with the highs just as smooth as they were when the Benz was loaded @ 1k.  The difference is a little faster cartridge with more air and a wider/deeper soundstage.  Bass could be a little lower now but I won't call that one as I'm not positive.  For reference, I've put over 1k hours on the Wood SL, so I am very familiar with it's traits for this comparison.

audiom......its all taste.....there is no hard and fast rule

@audiom3,
@artemus_5

I've finally started listening to my new Transrotor turntable with my Benz Micro Ebony L cartridge.  The sound is incredibly clear, spacious, focused and free of hash.

Being a newbie, I'm still wondering about the recommendation to try running the cartridge "wide open @47k." Which I presume is the impedance setting?

 I don't understand what "wide open" means.

But on my JE Audio phono stage, it makes it easy to select impedance/gain settings using buttons on the front of the unit.

You can see close up photos of the front panel here:

http://www.monoandstereo.com/2017/06/je-audio-hp-10-phono-amplifier-review.html

The MC impedance values I can select from are:

10 - 33 - 100 - 250 - 500

I was told since it's an MC cartridge to start out setting impedance at "100" as a good baseline.  Artemus, you said to try 47k which is "the default for MM cartridges" and I see that aligned with the "100" value for MC cartridges is "47" on the MM cartridge line.  Does that mean that the 100 value I've chosen amounts to the 47 value you suggest for MM?  I'm not sure how this works as I've plugged my phono arm into the MC input and I'm using those values.

Thus far the 100 impedance setting yields a gorgeous clarity and lushness, but in absolute terms it's a tad on the "dark" side, slightly rolled off.  Since I was told by my turntable pal that increasing impedance tends to brighten the sound, I tried the next highest setting of 250.  This indeed brightened the sound, giving back more air and that golden sparkle to things like cymbals and acoustic metal guitar strings that I really like.  It definitely sounds more accurate - for instance playing the same CD master against the vinyl of an album, the vinyl sounds more like the CD on the 250 setting.  But, things can get a tad analytical/piercing on this setting as well.

So I'm not sure what is left in the toolbox in tweaking the sound to my liking.  My ideal would be to have a dial between the 100 and 250 impedance setting where I could get a mix of that lushness and spaciousness of the 100 setting, and the more accurate sparkle of the 250 setting. 

Does adjusting things like VTA or the "head/tail" angle of the cartridge alter the sound and in what type of ways?

Thanks!