Is impedence so important for a pick/phono combo?

Just another voice to say, "Yes, it is important".

We recently tested some very small load changes with our Shelter 901. Most people with this cartridge prefer a load of about 40 ohms (running through a stepup). We tried multiple values between 30 and 50 and had no difficulty hearing the differences between each of them. Load changes as small as 1-2 ohms were audible once we knew what to listen for. You don't have to go to that extent, but you don't want to be wildly off the sweet spot either.

Rwd, LOL from your story of Lyra's "specification" for the Helikon. 100 to 47K?! My guess is they're just pretending to mate well with every phono stage on the planet in order to sell more cartridges. As you heard, the improvement when you load the cartridge properly is significant.

Hey Doug....you're right! I also checked the Benz M specification I had and it was something similar!!

Rick,
Have you tried to load the input of your ARC PH3se down to 500ohm? It may give you the same body and warm as the Rhea.

Is there a way to know exactly the optimal load impedence of a cartridge?
Thx
Zender

Sidssp, great suggestion. There's certainly no valid way to compare two phono stages without loading the cartridge identically. A couple of resistors should go for a lot less than a Rhea, and resistors practically never shut down intermittently without a reason. ;)