Dish Guy wrote:
Does it matter? Probably not.

I use a Denon 103s MC cartridge (0.385mV) and after several months of
testing/listening recently I finally settled on 47K ohms as its best
termination resistance.

I tried several values, 40, 100, 200, 1000, 2000 ohms and 47K ohms. The
lower values displayed a slight resonance in the upper bass, about 1 dB or
so somewhere around the 80-100 Hz I would estimate, just enough to skew the
frequency balance for the male voice. The 1000 and 2000 ohm values smoothes
this low freq rise but then produced a peak in the 6 KHz to 8 KHz region.
The 47K resistance offers the smoothest and most extended frequency response
with neither of these two peaks being audible.

I only tried the 47K loading out of frustration with the lower settings.
All seemed to introduce something not quite right. I must admit that I was
surprised that 47K loading sounded as good as it did -- and better than all
lower impedances as well. As an added bonus (I guess) the S/N ratio is
higher with the higher loading.

Some years ago when Koetsu cartridges were widely thought to be the best
(maybe still are), there were suggestions in one or more of the comics
that they sounded better using 47k than the normal few hundred ohms. One
writer, (can't remember who) said he thought all MC cartridges sounded
better with a 47k load.

Unfortunately, and as is the wont of magazines, he never gave any reason
for his preference, nor backed it with any factual information. Could he
have been right?

S.






"Serge Auckland" wrote in message
...
I recently acquired a low output (0.2mV) moving coil cartridge
(Sumiko Talisman B), for which the manufacturers' recommend a load of
40-100 ohms. I am currently running it into a load of 47k as my standard
RIAA preamp has sufficient gain, albeit with a bit more noise than for the
earlier MM cartridge, but nevertheless, perfectly acceptable. My question
is:- as MC cartridges are voltage sources (and Sumiko's manual also says)
then why should the load matter once it is, say, 10x greater than the
source impedance of the generator, which in my case is 5.8 ohms. The
sound I'm getting seems fine, so I would like to know what
change/improvement I should expect from a lower impedance load.

Thanks

S.