Moving Coil Cartridge loading
It’s interesting to hear other knowledgeable people’s views on this subject, just been reading through an email from NJC Audio sent to Phil Bishop who has just ordered one of their Reference SUTs to go with his NJC MM Phono Stage. It appears from NJCs own tests with MC cartridges that some cartridges respond noticeably to changes of load impedance and on some it makes virtually no difference, there are no hard and fast rules, their advice is to experiment with different load settings, see if it changes cartridge characteristics and then use the setting which sounds correct or to the personal taste of the listener, solid advice I think.
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Moving Coil Cartridge loading
Well guys, for once fortune has favoured me, mainly I think due to the current non availability of new Schiit Manis mine sold on ebay today for a pretty amazing amount, far more than I could have anticipated, so much so that the Rega Fono MC is within reach. In fact I picked up a loan unit this afternoon from my local Rega dealer to audition at home until next Tuesday.
Once set up I left it on the standard Rega factory settings of 100ohms and 1000picofarads and the lower of the 2 gain settings then settled down for an extended listening session this evening.
Firstly may I say Andrew Rothwell was correct about the low impedance on the Mani causing a drop in output, the Rega has more volume on the low gain setting than the Mani had on the high setting. (Edit: I later realised the factory Rega setting for gain was “high”, have now reset it to low, but even on low it is still marginally louder than the Mani was on high.)
Well how does the ATF7/Rega combo sound ? In a word, brilliant, the lost treble is back to the proper level and I can now actually hear an accurate rendition of cymbals and other metallic percussion, just listened to a half speed mastered version of the 2009 remix of Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield, the high harmonics and overtones of the metallic percussion were the best I’ve ever experienced off a vinyl record, it was tear jerking.
The combination seems to have no vices and is now just an open window into the music. The Mani on MC made the ATF7 underperform, now it can show its true quality and show it to be quite a bargain in moving coil terms. Thanks to Dave DSJR for the recommendation of both items, he really got it right, great stuff [emoji106]
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