I have an old treasury Benz Micro Reference, 25+ years old, but without any documentation. Tried to search, no result, producer send me some old document and it says that recommended loading from 1.000 - 47k, which is strange, cannot be matched with mc step up, kind of difficult.
Does anyone have specification for Benz Micro Reference (without s, 2, 3, just plain)?
That was the top Benz cart back then, right?
I had a Benz LP for nearly 15 years ... this had a coil impedance of 33 ohms. My MC phono stage was
not an MM phono stage with a SUT stuck on the front for a LOMC - as a result, I was able to experiment with a wide range of loading resistors. I found
3300 ohms gave the best compromise between:
* 'airyness' of the sound stage, and
* tight bass.
Higher than this and the bass started to lose tightness; kower than this ... the airyness started to disappear.
I would suggest getting hold of a phono stage which has, say, 64-66dB of gain
and the ability to select 47K loading. Then - using RCA 'T' connectors - you can experiment how different loading values affect the sound you hear. (By putting a 'loaded' RCA plug into each 'T' connector, as well as the phono cable.)
Alternatively, if your phono stage has an MM option - allowing you to bypass the SUTs - try using an active 'head amp' (aka a 'pre-pre-amp') into the MM section instead of the SUT.
You simply won't hear the best the Reference has to offer, using a SUT.