I have been looking around the internet to try and gather my knowledge and thoughts about getting the best out of a couple of MC carts I have recently procured.

1. Benz Micro Glider SL (Output voltage at 3.54 cm/s: 0.4 mV,- Internal impedance: 12 ohms)

I haven't any experience of those cartridges but have a number of MCs at different price points and have used them with the Accession (MM - there's now an MC version available) and Elevator. There are more than enough settings on the Elevator for all of my MCs and I'm sure these would be suitable for the Benz and Supex models.

Why not borrow an Elevator from the loan scheme here to find out for yourself? 

For my MCs - which include an Ortofon SPU, Zyx R100, Hana EL and Soundsmith Zephyr (actually an MI, but low output) I find the 840 ohm setting for all suits me fine. Maybe I'm not a true "audiophile" because I don't obsess over these things. For a (very) short while I had an MC phono amp with a variable loading knob and for a huge part of the adjustment range there was very little, if any difference. Only when wound right down was there an objectionable squashing of the sound. I can imagine some folk tweaking it for every record, but life's too short for that! Needless to say Graham's phono amps which I was using alongside this nameless piece of kit sounded better! 

I read the Supex prefers settings below 100ohms and I have been told the Glider is happy around 480ohms on a SUT, but not sure how that may translate?

I have indicated I am interested in the Loan program here in Aus, so we will get in line and try it out :)

Dan

Hi Dan, I only have a few MC cartridges but have tried lots of options with their loading from 20 ohms to 47 kilohms using the Elevator EXP and realised that the advice is right to set the loading resistance at 10x the cartridge source impedance or higher. Much higher resistance e.g. 100x was brighter sounding to me or more 'airy' and usually a little louder. I found going down lower than 3x made the sound very matter of fact and a little dull.

Inevitably it depends on personal taste and your system so these are only my opinions. Examples:

* I ran my 8 Ohm Phoenix on 100 Ohms, I tried higher and found 840 was a good compromise to liven up dull records. Now using the 'British' EQ on my Accession does that better so I stick with 100 ohms.

* My 4 Ohm R100L sounds good to me on 100 Ohms. The 30 Ohms EXP option is closest to 10x but I preferred 100 Ohms loading.

*The DL103's 40 Ohms worked well with 1 kilohm loading on the EXP. I thought was a bit dull with 100 Ohms loading.

I used resistor loading plugs to get some in between loadings like 50 Ohms, 200 Ohms, and 300 Ohms. Having made various physical changes I think they were more significant to getting the sound right than fine tuning the loading. Having written that I did enjoy the experimenting with both so please don't let me put you off.

Thanks for your follow on. How easy did you find using the loading plugs? did you use the loading plugs to bring it down from 47kohms? or did you use them in conjunction with the switch combos on the exp?

Cheers

Dan

I have a couple of additional questions about the best way to connect the Accession and Exp.... I have a CuSAT50 cable, that is probably much to long in its current placement between the Pre/Power amp and thought I could 'trim' it down to create a pair of short cables for the Accession/Exp.

Where do I get the additional RCA connectors that match the existing ones? Can they be ordered from GSP? 

Thanks

Dan

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-Locking-Phono-RCA-Plugs-High-Quality-Gold-Plated-Audio-Connectors-PHOPLU02/151388776255?epid=1830310783&hash=item233f79673f:g:A1cAAOSwXY5ZVND6" rel="nofollow - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-Locking-Phono-RCA-Plugs-High-Quality-Gold-Plated-Audio-Connectors-PHOPLU02/151388776255?epid=1830310783&hash=item233f79673f:g:A1cAAOSwXY5ZVND6

I've yet to make a cable that comes close to the Cusat50 so I can see why you split a long pair with DIY connectors. In connecting my EXP and M I found the minimum bending radius of the Cusat coax cable stopped me stacking them and in practice the 0.6m pair made by John C did nicely for me.

As far as the phono plugs go the same suppler is on Amazon with bulk discounts.

My current cartridge is a VdH Gold Frog and Although I was initially impressed with some of the detail it uncovered i felt it lacked some bass and a bit of general attack.

I'm a bit of a hifi Robinson Crusoe, i have zero exposure to other systems and my main point of contact with the hifi world here in the etruscan countryside north of Rome is the guy about 40 km away who rebuilds my pre amp if an electrical storm gets past the house fuses set up.

Anyway back to the plot.

I run an Elevator/ Reflex MC set up into an old (but well serviced) Chord CPA220 pre amp. After exchanging emails with Graham and John at GSP and Alt Jouk VdH i experimented with the cartridge load by adding a 270 ohm resistor in parallel with each channel into the Elevator using the 840 ohm input to raise each channel's load to about 208 ohms.

It definitely changed the sound, seeming to give it more impact and general low level oomph. However after living with this option for a few months i find myself back on the 100 ohm setting with no parallel wired resistors.

The general improved clarity and system speed seem better to my ears at the lower impedance.

Not sure how much info i'm providing but its good therapy for me.  (ho,ho.)

If anyone's intersted my system consists of 

Nottingham Ace Spacedeck (+ external power supply)

Hadcock 242 arm with Incognito wiring

VdH Gold Frog cartridge

Graham Slee Elevator / Reflex ERA Gold 

Restored CuSat50 interconnect

Chord CPA 2200 pre amp

2 Michell Alecto 1 mono blocks uprated by Graham Fowler

ATC scm40 speakers, bi amped

old but sweet Lumley silver interconnects and speaker cables.

so that's about it, i'll go now

regards to all GSP and british hifi fans.

M in M