ARC announces today a REF 10 phono section two chassis phono preamplifier.
30k
It's not been officially announced yet. IIRC, that'll happen in Munich.
Does anyone else find the stock loading options rather lean?
I wonder how the custom loading works?
You ask ARC to add a specific loading you want for the optional custom load.
How 'fine' do you think the loading options need to be since you consider the loading options now to be 'course?'
The loads as listed: 50-100-200-500-1000 ohms. Don't you think they're a bit coarse considering probably most with the cartridges that will be used with the ARC phono will need loading between 50-150 or 200 at max ohms? Right now I'm using a cartridge where 100 ohms I think is too low and 180 ohms is too high. (The Allnic actually allowed for 16 loads though it also affected the gain.) I'd love some intermediate values between the two. I really think that designers are missing the boat on this one. We argue about SRA, azimuth, phase, etc. and loading is an afterthought.
Personally as I've said, only JC had it right with the Vendetta that allowed for adjustable loading <200 ohms. Based on my experiences with the Vendetta, you need to load down to the ohm.
I wonder how many cartridge manufacturers think their loading below 200 ohms needs to be dialed in within 1 ohm? It does make sense that as you load down below 100 ohms you are having a greater impact on the sound of a cartridge. I think once you get much over 500 ohms you have essentially unloaded the cartridge. David Wilson wrote the best article I ever read on cartridge loading and its importance a long time ago in TAS. That was back in the day when *everybody* thought every MC cartridge should be 'loaded' at 47K. David essentially was telling everyone that believed 47K was the correct 'loading' value that they were dead wrong. The bottom line is that David was right many, many years ago.
Myles has hit on this before, but back in the days when people had marginal gain to play with coming from a tube phono section, loading down a cartridge was also throwing gain and dynamics out the window which were already marginal to begin with. People assumed the dead sound they were hearing when their cartridge was loaded was because of the loading and not the marginal gain and thus the preference for 47K 'loading.'
Not really. Lyra for the Atlas has a min load of 284 and with 150pf, around 500ohms. That is where it sounds better with my tube and ss phono in my system.
Does no it matter how many options they give, we always want more.
I don't know the answer to loading it that closely however I have been told by my "sources" that this unit is going to blow away all the analog guys. It will be a bigger difference than a REF 10 or REF 40 to a REF 5 and will make your turntable and cartridge sound just otherworldly.Not with the Doshi in my system. Best loaded at 100 ohms. (Actually just confirmed that in our listening session today because forgot to reset loading when swapping cartridges in and out during a group session ).
I don't know the answer to loading it that closely however I have been told by my "sources" that this unit is going to blow away all the analog guys. It will be a bigger difference than a REF 10 or REF 40 to a REF 5 and will make your turntable and cartridge sound just otherworldly.
I ordered one for a client this week and I cant wait to hear what it does with his Goldfinger/Graham arm combo into a REF10/REF750 combo.
My loading expertise is limited since I mostly liked my cartridges run into the 47k input however I look fowarded to trying the different combinations.
Myles perhaps you could write a note to ARC with suggestions?