My copy came yesterday and I’ve now looked at the article.
It could be an artifact of the printing, but the two curves he shows look to my eyes as though the 47kOhm curve would hide the 30 Ohm curve were they superimposed on one another. I think the differences would be audible. Why did he not tell us what he heard when he switched from 47k to 30? I am sure one could have written about that. How about 100 or 500 Ohms? What did they measure? How did they sound?
The conclusion to choose the heaviest load is obviously wrong … were it true, there would be more phono preamps with sub 100 Ohm settings on the market. Anyone who has listened to different loadings with different cartridges and preamps knows that there are differences presented to the discerning ear. If the MC preamp isn’t adjustable, the default loading is often 100 Ohms. Is this optimal based on market forces rather than cartridge performance? Why not 30, or 50?
Linn are very specific about both resistive and capacitive phono cartridge loading for their badged cartridges. The Uphorik provides several setting choices of what might appear to be oddly close low numbers. When I used a Linn Krystal and the Uphorik, I could hear the difference between the 40ish and 50ish choices. But when I switched to tube phono preamps (specifically to CJ’s TEA2MAX), the difference that loading made seemed far more subtle.
I had a conversation with CJ’s head tech (now CJ’s owner). He confirmed that differences were subtle, but that CJ would install a custom load for me if desired. Later I upgraded to the TEA1. Which also allowed capacitive adjustments and custom resistive loads. Still subtle. I generally preferred minimal capacitance, and with most cartridges, I preferred 200 or 400 Ohm loads.
I moved on to ARC … loved the simplicity of making load adjustments on the fly from the remote control. Still subtle, with my preference tending to be in the sub 500 Ohm range.
My Burmester 088 is equipped with the MC Phono module. It offers several resistive and gain choices. It is solid state, and just like my Krell and Linn phono preamps, differences are clearer … but I can’t listen to any of them … they seem shrill, brittle, hard compared to either CJ or ARC. It is easy to tell the differences between loadings, but even easier to tell that my ears prefer the tubes for vinyl.
I think that MC loading is a black art. I love Lyra cartridges, and they present very detailed data and specific recommendations. Their recommendations certainly “work,” but my experience is that my ears are an even better guide for my own personal listening enjoyment.