[Frank McCrea]

Hello,
I recently purchased a Shelter 501 and I'm about to start experimenting with cartridge loading.
The Shelter manual states the DC resistance at 12 ohms, and suggests the recommended load impedance as follows.

Step up trans within 20 ohms.
Head apmplifier within 100 ohms.
High gain EQ amplifier within 47K ohms.

I will be using a (47K ohm)  Cornet phonostage with some Lundahl LL9206 step up transformers set at the 1:10 ratio with 20db's of gain.

According to the specs above I could go down to within 20 ohms. I've done a bit of reading in the archives and it seems a lot of people are loading the 501's at around 100 ohms with various step up transformers.

Can some of you kind folks tell me where you are loading yours, and maybe comment on the differents in sound above and below the 100 ohm norm.

Thanks, Frank

[hagtech]

Loading specs can be confusing.  The shelter works just fine with 1:10 steup into stock Cornet.  Loading on cart is a bit high at 470 effective ohms, but the low capacitance of the Cornet makes it less noticable.

If you find the treble a bit on the high side, then start loading it down.  You can either add parallel resistors right on the cart side, or swap out the 47k in the cornet.  Use 10k ohms to get specified 100 ohm loading.

jh

[tianguis]

Frank, Jim:
       I used a 501/II with Lundahls at 1:10 for some time. I messed about with loading and found that 100 ohms sounded right. I replaced the 47k's with 10k's.

Regards,
Larry Welsh

[Frank McCrea]

Thanks guys,

I'm starting to experiment with different values this weekend.
So far 100 ohms is a big improvement over 470. I'll keep playing until I have it fine tuned.
Frank