Hi @ratrat - that’s embarrassing - memory failure!
You are right: the 453 was for a f different cartridge altogether.
I just looked again at the back of the SL, not the box in the drawer, and it’s a 576, as provided by Cymbiosis.
In any event, at least the comment that you don’t need to change when going from Krystal to Kleos was right.
My apologies for the moment of senilility.
You were just checking forum member were following, and concentrating, really, weren’t you 
So, to be clear, 576R is best for Linn LO MC cartridges, like Krystal, etc 
Thanks
KR
R
I completely failed to remember the change and was lazy. At least I looked at the back when the alarm bell was rung, and then owned up.
The summary is that you are right: 576 for Krystal and for Kleos, but not for DVs or Ortofons.
This all assumes Linn TTs and arms. Loading is also affected by tonearm cable capacitance, so with other turntables (arms) YMMV.
It was suggested to me to try 560R or even 576R with my Lyra Atlas SL. Those don’t work well at all. Far too bright and edgy sounding for my taste, especially with classical music. I even tried 500 and that is too high a value. In retrospect I think something lower than 453R for the Dynavector might have worked out better.
The capacitance of my tonearm cable is about 250pF. If the Linn arms are lower – say 125pF, for arguments sake – then it stands to reason that higher values are more optimal.
Hi @JosquinDesPrez,
That sounds right. It’s no excuse for my error as I have LP12s, but different arm and wires therein must be relevant.
Yeah, there are no right or wrong answers. It also comes down to personal preference to at least some degree.
If I didn’t listen to classical music, I could probably tolerate less loading (i.e. higher values) with jazz and rock, etc. However, I have a hard time with overly-bright response when playing classical, and I would rather give up a little bit in dynamics in order to tame excessive treble extension. I have pretty much settled on 470R for my Lyra Atlas SL (the Z-Plug is on order, but delayed for the Naim Airplug).
I could have had my 453R modified, but I want to hang on to it with my XV-1s as a backup. I might also use it for some of the brighter/edgier DG recordings after the mid 70s. I call it my Herbie Tamer (after Herbert v Karajan)…LOL.
I am not sure whether to suggest that this shows discerning ears or not much laziness.
Sometimes I can’t even be bothered to swap to CD for (say) DG recordings or to vinyl (not streamer) for (say) Hot Rats or Kind of Blue. Swapping loading plugs for different music is definitely a sign of more dedication than I can usually muster.
I used a 470R Airplug with my Kleos SL. Seems to be the de facto loading for Lyra SL cartridges. I never used any capacitance.
I totally get your meaning. It’s really not something I will do often. Mostly if I just want to listen at length to some problematic recordings (Karajan’s Bruckner symphonies for example). IOW: if I am going to play HvK stuff for two hours it’s not that big a deal.
Maybe I should just ban Herbie from my listening lounge. LOL
However, it literally takes me no more than 10 secs to do the swap. The Superline is on my top Fraim Brain shelf, and I sit within reach of the volume control. I only need to mute the 252 when swapping it.
FWIW: I was never talking about using any capacitance plugs either. I was referring to capacitance of the arm cable, from cartridge lead to phono-stage input. In general you want capacitance as low as you can get it for LOMC, since that allows you to use less loading. I don’t use any of the capacitance plugs on my Superline. They can be useful if you get RF interference, but then you maybe have to adjust for more loading (i.e. with lower values).
And to say some load is “de facto” for some cartridge has to be qualified by what arm and what phono-stage are being used (and yeah, we are all talking about Superline here, but the arm still matters). Both of those have an affect on what is the best loading. It’s not really a cartridge thing so much as it’s how the arm cable and phono-stage respond to the cartridge’s energy. And that was my point earlier. When people say loading the Superline for x cart with x value has best results, they are usually talking about the Linn or Naim tables with Linn or ARO arms, and those may well have lower capacitance than my Clearaudio with a Clearaudio arm.
Jonathon Carr, the designer of all the Lyra cartridges has spoken at length about these issues for handling loading, which is why the Lyra manuals don’t recommend a specific loading, but rather suggest a range (100Ω - 800Ω) depending on arm capacitance, phono-stage and preference.
Dynavector and Lyra cartridges work well with transimpedance phono stages. No need to worry about loading…
That may be. I had a Herron VTPH-2a and it didn’t require loading for LOMC. But all that’s not relevant to the Superline.
Thanks for all the input and different considerations in the thread. Time will tell what the outcome will be on my part.
Do let us know the end result!
Will do!
I had a 282/SCDR supercap and a hicap. I never got round to trying the supercap on the superline but comparing AUX2 to the hicap I preferred the more fluid but less detailed presentation using AUX2, and the hicap when back in its box.
When I upgraded to a 552 this freed up the supercap but I had to wait for the Burndy. I ran the superline from 552 AUX power and compared to the supercap via Snaic and again AUX came out on top. When the Burndy arrived AUX was finally beaten.
Never had a SuperCapDR on the SuperLine, but did SC2. To aid racking, I then tried HiCapDR but preferred Aux2 (252) - less ‘hifi’ more musical. Brought my old SC2 back into the fold and that has stayed: all of Aux2 with added bliss.
For many this may be the case but for me I prefer the 560R…. Z foil cryo air plug in my case.
Richard
It sounds like you have tried them and made your own mind up, which must be the right approach.
I use a SuperCap2 with my SuperLine and am very pleased, as it should be.
Do you folks think a SC2 to SCDR upgrade is worthwhile?