Resistor in phono stage

Al, Thanks for the correction, my bad.  Thanks also for giving me the easy way out. I was plain wrong, but it was due to brain fart.

Misternice, there are some who say that any MC should work fine into a 47K ohm load, and there are others who load down MC cartridges (which is to say they load the cartridge with a lower resistance) and swear that their choice is superior.  In principle, there is no right or wrong.  I only recently experimented with 47K as a load on some very low output MC cartridges, and I find that I cannot go back to the 100 ohm load that I previously favored.  The sound is just more open and effortless, in my system, with my cartridges and phono stage.  Ralph Karsten has pointed out that the phono stage itself is most affected by the load resistance; the cartridge doesn't care much until you get down to very low resistance loads, where now you are losing signal voltage to ground.  That reduces gain, and to my ears seems to roll off treble, both of which phenomena make electrical sense.

A wild card in your equation is the fact that you stored the cartridge for 6 years.  That may have affected compliance.  Give the cartridge several dozens of hours to loosen up before making critical judgements.

Vinyl Engine says that your Sumiko has 11g effective mass, with the "L" weight.  I found some comments on the internet to the effect that the Supex "likes" a high mass tonearm, which the Sumiko is not.  (11g is in the low range of "medium" effective mass.) Maybe that is a source of your dissatisfaction.  But I would do nothing until the cartridge has had a chance to break in.

Ok,thanks for that.

Im using the H weight on the arm.Im thinking it could be a combination of several things,not necessarily the resistors.Ive used a spin cleaner on my records for the first time,and that has changed what im hearing too,for the better,room acoustics,hifi rack,speakers,powercords, interconnects,etc..I will give the supex more time to settle in.Not a bad little cartridge,i must say.Using the a supex step up transformer of course.cheers.

Using the a supex step up transformer of course.

Ah! Which of course explains how the 54 db gain of the phono stage suffices for use with a 0.2 mv cartridge.

But it also adds to the possibility that either resistors or capacitors a previous user might have installed in the phono stage could be an issue. For example, suppose a previous user had installed 1K resistors, for use with a cartridge having a rated output in the upper part of the LOMC range. And let’s assume that your SUT provides a gain of 10:1. That would mean your cartridge would be seeing a load of only 10 ohms, which stands a very good chance of being low enough to result in the adverse effects Lew referred to in his previous post that can occur when load resistance becomes excessively low.

From the perspective of the cartridge, use of a SUT also greatly increases the effects of any capacitors that might have been installed on the loading terminals within the phono stage. Which as I mentioned earlier could conceivably have been done to conform to the loading requirements of some moving magnet cartridges.

So I would definitely open up the unit and take a look at what if anything has been installed on those terminals.

Regards,
-- Al

With SUTs, it is the loading of the transformer to prevent ringing and also to allow it to express its turns ratio that is important.

If loaded with a value too low, the highs will be rolled off. If loaded with too high a value, there will be ringing, which is say distortion, most audible as being bright and in your face.

Low output cartridges by themselves are insensitive to loading. Its the SUT and and also the preamp where the loading becomes critical.