Cartridge Loading- Low output M/C

Dear @catcher10 @2channel8: That Phonomena phono stage seems to me that is something special and especially that so low price. I never heard of it before but maybe is time to evaluate it. The owners and reviewers speaks excellent " things " about the item.

This is a highligth from an owner in reference to his cartridge loading:

"""  Ortofon Cadenza Blue (MC). I am using a Pro-Ject Audio 2Xperience SB turntable and Ortofon 6NX interconnects. The Phonomena also allows me plenty of flexibility in choosing gain and impedance loading. With the Cadenza Blue I am using a gain of 56 dB and an impedance of 59 ohms (I like the tight, defined bottom end). """

The Nova is even better, at least is what I read it. Very useful information for take care about.


R.

To get started with LOMCs I first bought a Schiit Mani, then upgraded to an Emotiva XPS-1 and now the Phonomena, so that is the extent of my experience with MC phono stages. I will say that in my opinion the MM section of my Nakamichi Receiver 2 beats them all with a Shure V15 RS.
An update on cable/phono stage capacitance: Musical Surroundings has a similar statement that MCs are not sensitive to capacitance in their owner's manual. To be sure, I have the dip switch set to the lowest setting. I've sent an inquiry to Cardas, so we'll se what they say, if anything. With a previous tonearm I used WireWorld Luna 7s. When I asked WW about the capacitance of the cable they said that they don't focus on capacitance; but engineer for the lowest inductance. I'm not sure if one can have a low inductance without a low capacitance. I'm just relating the story. The cables sound good.

2channel8 & Ericsch, it is true that the sonics of LOMCs themselves are essentially insensitive to reasonable amounts of load capacitance. However, note the statement by Lyra cartridge designer Jonathan Carr that I quoted early in this thread:

I should now debunk another myth regarding loading, which is that low-impedance MC cartridges are insensitive to capacitive loading. OK, the MC cartridges themselves aren’t particularly sensitive to capacitance, but the inductance of the cartridge coils will resonate with the distributed capacitance of the coils and the capacitance of the tonearm cable to create a high-frequency spike, and this spike certainly is sensitive to capacitance. In general, the less the capacitance the better. Having more capacitance (across the plus and minus cartridge outputs) will increase the magnitude of the high-frequency spike and lower its frequency, neither of which is good news for phono stage stability or phase response.

Generally speaking, the greater the capacitance across the plus and minus cartridge outputs, the heavier the resistive loading needs to be to control the resulting high-frequency spike. Conversely, less capacitance allows the resistive load on the cartridge to be reduced, which will benefit dynamic range, resolution and transient impact.

Also see the link Jonathan ("JCarr" at Audiogon) provided in his post in this thread dated 5-28-2018:

http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?15077-Cartridge-Loading-A-Misnomer&p=258578&vie...

That is why Ralph (Atmasphere) stated above that "it is advantageous to keep the resonant frequency as high as possible."  It's all about the phono stage.

Regards,
-- Al

2channel8   6-1-2018
I haven't been able to measure my phono cable's capacitance. My multimeter just reads 0.0 F, even though it has a uF range. 

As a rough ballpark approximation, a typical phono cable may have a capacitance in the vicinity or 25 pF (picoFarads) per foot or so, corresponding to 125 pf for a five foot length.

125 pF is 0.000125 uF (microFarads), and 0.000000000125 F (Farads), so it would be understandable that your meter indicates 0.0 F.

Regards,
-- Al 

Specifically to phono cable from TT RCA box to phono stage.....Cable capacitance does matter with regard to LOMC cartridges. Lyra specifically suggests using a low cap cable, they do not recommend high cap cables. 
I also used a Morrow Audio PH6 Grand Reference phono cable for some time and when I finally asked Mike he said 390pF/mt and I was shocked! He said he never heard HF rolloff with his cables, I tend to agree but then I assume it is because you have to load at a lower setting, which is not good for the cantilever, you run the chance of stiffening the cantilever.

Once I switched to AQ Cougar at 40pF/mt and loaded my Delos to 475 ohms.That's when the higher dynamics and resolution came into play, it was a jaw dropping moment. The Delos performance rose many levels, really everything just got better.

On my Musical Surroundings Nova II I have the setting at 100pF (the new model settings are 100/200pF, the older were 200/300pF), Michael Yee changed it. In general I too hear no difference but have it set to lowest closest to my cable rating.

I tell everyone just find out all the specs you can, then go from there. You can't make the proper settings till you know all the info along the signal path. 

Cheers