MC Cartridge question. Does load impedence have an effect on output?

[lordmortlock]

Just picked up Ricks Tube Tech MAC Phono stage and it's very very good. Gain is lower than my current haden boardman stage though and I use a passive pre so I'm not getting any db lift between phono and power.

The unit has dip switches for impedence load matching. I'm pretty new to MC (and vinyl in general for that matter) and whilst I get step up ratios etc loading is a bit of a minefield, despite doing a fair bit of reading.

Can I increase gain/output of the Tube tech stage by experimenting with the dips? Thanks for any help chaps

[lordmortlock]

Ah sorry, didn't see the analogue specific section. Cheers for moving this

[Light Dependant Resistor]

There is a wealth of information here, http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/analogue-source/59375-moving-coil-loading.html
Minimal loading capacitance is best
Moving coil types have far greater frequency response
Load resistance tunes damping

As you are using a passive attenuator, and I would guess this is a conventional L pad, decreasing the series resistance of that device with a parallel fixed resistor of value between 10k and 15k for both Left and Right, may be the easiest method of achieving modest increase in less attenuation. I recall when building PAS02 and Passion kits as low as 7k5 was used for this purpose where Vishay bulk foil resistors were used..

Cheers / Chris

[YNWaN]

Can I increase gain/output of the Tube tech stage by experimenting with the dips? Thanks for any help chaps

In short, no..

[Ali Tait]

Doesn't have adjustable gain does it?

[lordmortlock]

Don't think so Ali. Dip switches galore but no attenuator. It sounds absolutely superb but I don't think I'd get away with much less than the 0.3 output of the DV17d3 fitted currently.

Some good info in the first link thanks Chris. A lot of it goes waaay over my head mind ...