Moving on from Benz LP

As my phono pre has limited gain, let me ask if it is the copper or the low output that rules. In other words, what is your assessment of a high output copper coil version? Actually ZYX high output is not very high, 0.48mV, compared to others called high.

The best system I ever heard had a 7 year old Benz LP running. AR D-250 amp, Infinity Beta speakers,AR sp 10 pre, and all sitting on stillpoint sp 5's.
The detail and soundstage was unreal. The last time I listened to the system he played some big band music and I could pics out the entire band from left to right behind the speakers.

Tim

Melm,

The output of the copper, silver and gold coil ZYX's is identical. For the purpose of matching a phono stage's gain, the wire type is not a consideration. The output voltage rules.

Before proceeding, it's useful to understand that ZYX's output specs are not based on the industry-typical stylus velocity of 5.00 cm/second. ZYX measures cartridge output at 3.54cm/second. To compare with other cartridge brands or for matching cartridge output to phono stage gain, it's helpful to multiply ZYX's specified .24 or .48mv by 5.00/3.54, or 1.41. When you do this, you find that a ZYX actually outputs around .34mv (LO) or .68mv (HO).

Reviewers who don't know this often remark that the ZYX they're reviewing sounded louder than they expected for its rated output. This is because they ARE louder, for the reason noted above.

Thus informed, it should be easy to choose between a LO or HO ZYX. Look up the gain (or input sensitivity) of your phono stage. If it can handle a .34mv cartridge, choose the LO. If you don't need the higher output, there's no advantage to choosing a HO ZYX and sonically there's a major disadvantage, as the HO output models (like the HO version of any MC cartridge) are less dynamic.

Apologies to the OP for this digression, but hope it's helpful.