In article , 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.

Is the above based on measurements? If so, I'd be interested to see the
details. Can you also say what level of cable/amp capacitance was used?

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.

I am not sure that a higher load impedance will mean a better SNR. This
will depend on the details of the noise generation mechanisms involved as
well as the source details.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html