Al, I have placed resistors on both the secondary and primary sides of step up transformers and prefer using them on the primary side. I am not an engineer and have no technical background but I try to listen very carefully. I'm guessing that the transformers are designed so that they work optimally when the secondary sees 47K. If you are changing this perhaps the transformer is subject to ringing or other anomalies.
I believe the manufacturer's recommended loading in most cases is for direct into a high gain phono stage. Some companies like Lyra, for example, quote a loading for high gain phono stages and a different loading for step up transformers. In Clearaudio's case the top of the range 900 ohms is close to the 25 times starting point recommended by many when not using a step up.
I'm still learning about all of this as is everyone else. I'm just suggesting that everyone have an open mind and just experiment and listen. Maybe everything that we've assumed in the past is not correct.
I believe the manufacturer's recommended loading in most cases is for direct into a high gain phono stage. Some companies like Lyra, for example, quote a loading for high gain phono stages and a different loading for step up transformers. In Clearaudio's case the top of the range 900 ohms is close to the 25 times starting point recommended by many when not using a step up.
I'm still learning about all of this as is everyone else. I'm just suggesting that everyone have an open mind and just experiment and listen. Maybe everything that we've assumed in the past is not correct.