Cartridge upgrade for VPI Scoutmaster

I'm pretty impressed with the Airy 3. The dynamics are incredible. This is a very enjoyable cart. Very spacious, clean, and defined. Well rounded, though I am still getting it set up "right". I set the VTF at 2 grams as per the original owners suggestion (same TT and arm) after some experimenting. I am running it single ended into a Pass Labs Xono phono stage (the only way INTO the Xono), and balanced out to the X-1 pre. Cables are HT Magic. Cart loading I set to 199.36 ohms initial as per my last cart. I'll tweak this after I get the cart set up physically correct, and post what settings seem to work best in my rig to my ear. I’m also working on setting the Azimuth. I have some voltmeters ordered online to help me out with this. I set the VTA almost level (a little bit negative) for 180-gram vinyl.

Wooten,

I have the Airy-3 and a Pass Ono which is very similar to your Xono. I think you will find that the loading will sound best between 80-136 Ohms depending on the phono cable you are using.

If you test the varying settings, and find your best setting is something outside this range, please post back. I am happy with my setup, but am willing to experiment with other successful parameters. ;-)

Darrell

Dmccombs
Thanks for your input. Only a Xono owner understands the unusual load settings for this phono pre. I will try your settings after I get my cart tweaked more properly. I am using the loading I set up for my Dynavector 20X-H. I use HT Magic in and out (balanced out), and throughout my system. What cables are you using? Are you running balanced or single-ended out? What pre-amp are you using?

Wooten,

I was using a XLO phono cable. With that, the best loading I found was at 81 ohms.

Then I changed to a Purist Audio Venustas. I could immediately hear that the loading was different. With that cable, I found that 100ohms was best.

As the Airy breaks in, people have found that the loading requirements change. Since you bought your used, you may not have much of a break-in or loading change.

Darrell

The phono cable has no effect on loading.

Ralph Karsten (Atma-Sphere) explains this quite thoroughly in a recent thread.