Dynavector Cartridge Load 100ohms or 47k ohms?

The higher the input resistance, the lower the damping factor is going to be and the more likely it will be that your MC cart. will have a rising high end and experience ringing. The lower the resistance, the greater the damping. See Bob Hagerman's excellent discusion of cart. loading on his web site. Generally MCs will prefer a lower load with a SUT than with a head amp or gain stage. I think this is because the lower load enhances the current output of the cart. and a transformer is a device that converts current into voltage. Whereas a head amp is looking for voltage and will do better at a little higher loading. For a short while I had thought that my Sheltor sounded better at a higher load; until a singer hit a note that almost drove me out of the room. A lower load brought things under control.

really depends on your tonal balance of your system and what sound you are looking for.
I did have my XV-1 on 250ohms for some time, then about 4 mnths ago I tried on 47k. Currently I prefer 47k as it seems to let more upper frequency extension and flow in my system.
try for your self and pick what sounds overall better for you.

cheers SR

Dougdeacons answer and methodology is spot on IMO.and all other posts are good points as well IMO... I also use the 17D2MkII on a JMW10/Aries combo, but with a Bent audio SUT into an ARC PH3SE. For me, experimentation similar to the way he suggests with loading, I find the 100 ohm load just right, even with the SUT..Lower values than 100 tend to sound more closed in...and values above 1000 are "brighter" sounding in my system and although 47K allows a more "open" sound, the HF lacks coherence and the bass is too soft. I used to think that a good rule of thumb is to go as high a load value as possible so that you could keep the virtues of a MC( airyness and openness) but not too high that you lose balance in the bass and HF, and to some extent this is still true, but I think it's wise to go by the Cartridge manufactures recommended load as a starting point and let your ears decide which is right in your system. Best of luck..Ken:)

Dear Robm321: It is not true, like Dugdeacon told you, that " the best loading for a MC cartridge ... etc ", at least not the all true.
The best loading impedance is when the frecuency response of the cartridge is flat: when this happen ?. Only when the loading impedance is the value that the manufacturer/designer recomended ( with the matched tonearm ) Maybe you like it or maybe not, but this not what you ask.
If you change the recomended load impedance then you change the cartridge frecuency response: you will be using these changes in the load impedance like an Equalizer, and this may be against the music reproduction and can't help to you and to your audio system, because if you resolve with an equalization then you never know what is wrong with your audio system reproduction: this is like when you have a headache and take an aspirin and forget about: maybe that headache has a cause than can hurt you in the near future, it is the same with our audio systems.
If you don't like what you hear with the recomended impedance then you have to look to other stages in your audio systems that have to improve: tonearm, headshell wires, TT, phono stage, line preamp, cables, loudspeakers, loudspeakers position, room, and many things.If you check all these pameters then you can have a better quality sound reproduction through your home audio system. You have to care about it.
If we have to change the caracteristics of a product design for it can like us, maybe it is a bad design and is better to change that product for a better one.
Regards and always enjoy the music.
Raul.

Raul,
You're right in theory of course.

Unfortunately the cartridge manufacturer's specified impedance was "> 100 ohms".

Which number > 100 would meet with your approval?