Tim/xlrider,
Tho the math may lead you to a resistive setting of 10-12K for the Grado Prestige series....actual trial and listening will dictate something higher. A cartridge is not purely an electrical device....it is affected my many mechanical factors...which skews the results.
Loading a Grado at 10-12K will likely result in
overdamping it...leaving it with a limp version of its robust self. I found
27K to sound right in my system...my Grado has the Longhorn stabilizer, Frank's recipe for 1000cst silicone on the coils and an EAR Isodamp wedge (between body and headshell) on a 12gram/internally oil damped tonearm (along with a higher end shibata stylus from a G1+).
All these non-electrical matters factor greatly into the purely electrical-based formula of Franks (and Jim Hagerman's resonance calculator, too). Grado themselves now indicates just leaving it at 47K...better to be relatively
underdamped than overdamped I think is their gist. Once upon a time they listed 10K loading for their G and prior series, now they note 47K (on even the lower inductance low output Woodies).
That's not to say Grado is neccessarily 100% correct either...but something in between the two extremes 10-to-47K is
likely about right.
There is a year-long post, viewed some 40,000x or something over at the Vinyl Engine on this topic
I have to say it is the most
beneficial topic on one's analog front end performance I've run into in a long time on the net (next to being told about the wonders of mortite caulking compound 25 years ago, and later re-discovering it in a sense thru Frank and Audio Basics with the use of Plast-i-Clay internally on many decks)
John
