Vinyl foibles

@audio-b-dog 

I wasn't suggesting that changing the capacitance of your phono pre was altering the sound character of your Sonus Faber's in any way just that their tonal balance may not be too your taste. My bad you were talking about your XP-25.

In the simplest of terms - the resistance and inductance of the moving coil create a high frequency resonance which is damped by the input impedance of the phono preamp. Lower input impedance more damped higher less damped. Elevating top-end caused by improper loading or too high an impedance results in high frequency distortion making the top end sound edgy and bright.

@audio-b-dog Alignment questions.

Two cost free basic aids that are very reliable. I reply as per your request for any other ideas about these two…….

Arm parallel to the record easy check is to lay a pencil or another long cylinder type object under the tonearm while stylus is in the groove and a record (obviously) stationary. Try several LPs if required to double check. Reducing the distance (gap) between the wand and the object makes height adjustment easy to judge. The less gap the better and more accurate. Cigar shape arms need not apply!

Stylus 90 degrees to record. Use a simple mirror the thickness of a record placed on your platter, and lower the arm. The reflection of the cartridge body in the mirror is easier to judge than a record. Any azimuth error doubles. Looking head-on at the cartridge body you can check both sides of the bottom of the cartridge are equal height. Of course any irregularity with a cantilever will effect stylus angles, but for a cartridge alignment it works. Simples!!

If you achieve good results, then expensive equipment may not be required.
 

As l say pretty basic tasks that work well before you have those important, vital final listening tests. 

@kennyc 

I understand the wife factor. In the case of the XP-25 it was she who wanted me to get rid of my tubed gear, so I had prior approval. I went to TMR and found the Pass Labs phonostage. I had an XP-25.Pass Labs preamp of the same vintage, and neither of them seem to have been much improved upon by the Pass Labs XP-32 over my XP-30 or the Pass Labs XP-27 over my Pass Labs X-25. 

@mylogic 

I begin with the tone arm parallel to the record, but lift a bit for extra treble. I cannot drop the arm beyond parallel because my tonearm is parallel to the record at the lowest setting.

@faustuss 

Thanks for the information. That makes it a bit clearer. In the end, though, I just go by my ear. Although, I can't hear things right away. It can take me months. I'm pretty dialed-in now to the changes made by impedance and capacitance. I know capacitance is not supposed to make a difference with my MC cartridge, but it does. The general concensus is to set capacitance to 100 with a moving coil cartridge, but to my ear 200 sounds better. 320 is too zipped up. Too weighty or however one might put it.

There is a “general consensus” with respect to proper capacitance for an MC cartridge? Where?

@lewm 

The general consensus is everywhere I've looked. I haven't read any sources that suggests an audiophile (who else would bother?) with a MC cartridge should worry about the capacitance setting. I guess I might have said, according to my research, there is a general consensus. My ARC PH-7 had it set at 200 and the user could not change it.