I landed on 1.87 grams for the Apheta 3. Exactly where I had the 2. I am back to the days when I first fell in love with the RP10. Massive wide & tall soundstage, tight bass, sweet mids and highs. Detail galore. Playing through the Aria> Aethos. Loving it.
I also prefer the low gain setting on my P8/Apheta 3/Aura combo. It lends the music a tad more nuance and balance to my ears and also allows me to fine tune volume increase more accurately on my amplifier.
I now think you are correct @Davey . I did a test with my CD player as input and I see clipping in Audacity. It looks like the Behringer USB ADC is overloading - not the Aria at its high gain setting with the Apheta 3 - which is a relief! I’m correcting the record here to avoid sowing the seeds of misinformation with my earlier post. I will keep the Aria on the low gain setting for the reasons you note above (more headroom) but my original assumption and conclusion as to where the problem lies I now think was wrong.
This is what I run, with a puffin for DSP. It was great with my Apheta 2 and had a definite impact. The Azimuth adjustment doesn’t work with my new Soundsmith cart, but as a hybrid phono stage I find it to be exceptional.
After more listening I`ve settled on 200 ohms. 100 ohms came across as too dull sounding to me and the 47k was just a tic too bright. The Apheta 3 is a really good cartridge !
This is a good thread. I just found and read through it. Great info. I've have a P-8 / Apheta 3 with an Aria Mk3. Now that I have a couple hundred hours on the set up I am really enjoying it. Like most of us though, I'm always chasing something better. I've been considering upgrading the phono stage and am considering a Manley Chinook Special Edition MkII or a Parasound JC3+. Anyone with either of those coupled with an Apheta 3? Thoughts?
I have a Rega P10 /w Apheta 3 and settled on a 2.2g tracking force, 600 ohm input impedance, 1000pF capacitance as recommended by the manu (although I don't notice a difference between 1000 and 100 honestly) and I have the bias set at a hair past 1.5. I also noticed that the RPM was a bit quick with the factory setting at 33.40, and so I slowed it down a bit and got it to a consistent 33.34 which is good enough for me. I am extra sensitive to high frequencies, and I find the P10 + Apheta 3 to be a tad bit bright and harsh with it's recommended settings. All of the changes I made were to keep the treble under control. You ears might be different or your speakers/headphones might be less bright than mine, so it's really just personal preference and what you're using further down the chain. I would say that even with these changes it's still a bit bright for me, but I feel like I'm at the upper limit of what I can change without negatively impacting the sound quality in other aspects. If I go up to 1k impedance for example, it starts to get muddy. Or if I go lower on the tracking force, the highs start to get brighter and less controlled, but if I go up it starts to sound too restricted. And in general I get nervous about going to far outside the recommended VTF and that it might cause damage. So I felt 2.2 was a modest increase outside the 1.9-2.0 recommended with the greatest benefit. Also note: At this level of equipment, you're going to notice the mixing and pressing differences from one record to the next, or even one song to the next. So be sure to test with a lot of records. Test with something you know was cut hot, and something that is the opposite. Test with something that has a wide sound stage and something with a narrow one. Something cut loud and something cut quiet, etc. The goal is to find a setting that works moderately well for everything. Also, make sure to have an ultrasonic cleaner (I use the humminguru) you'd be surprised how much of a difference it makes when you start going down this kind of hyper analytic listening haha. In reality, it's not a huge difference, but when you're trying to eek out that last few percentage points, you'll start to hear it.
Reviving this thread as I just picked up a P10/Apheta 3. @Josquin des Prez it's funny you recommended using orchestral strings to test loading because that is literally the first thing I did after the setup last night was put on the AP reissue of The Four Seasons. My questions for you is in what direction should the strings get less harsh? Like, going from 475 ohms to 100 ohms?
More loading (i.e. lower values) will suppress liveliness, so if strings are harsh start lowering the load values. Something like 450 - 225 - 100 should be good ones to work with. Too much loading will suppress dynamics and start to muddy bass. I would also find a good jazz album with well defined double bass to make sure you don't over-load. I like to use Collin Walcott's Cloud Dance (with David Holland and Wallcot's tabla) on ECM and Gateway (again on ECM). In both cases DeJohnette's drums and Abercrombie's guitar will determine if you start to load too much and begin losing dynamic response. I am in the middle of auditioning a Boulder phono-stage and am trying to determine loading for it. AT the moment I think 100Ω is about right for my Lyra mono and 225Ω is about right for my Lyra stereo. On my Naim Superline I load both at 470Ω. Goes to show how different phono-stages interact differently with LOMC cartridges.
Thanks for the quick reply. I'm using a Sutherland Duo for my phono stage. I've been playing around with the loading throughout the day and it occurred to me that I also need to change the gain for this cartridge. I have it set at 200 ohm and 64 db gain (up from 58 db) and this feels like the sweet spot. Spinning the AP 45 of Waltz For Debby and it sounds incredible. I think I'll keep it here for a few days at least and try a variety of genres.
I do the same with my Apheta 2/Cyrus phono. I never thought to change the recommended Rega settings TBH.
Yeah, I would say at 0.35mV output you need more gain, and 64db sounds about right. My Lyra are 0.25mV and my Dynavector is 0.3mV and in both cases I use 64 db gain.
For any given cartridge loading can be different with different phono stages. I suppose if Rega has a specific recommendation for loading then it assumes you are using their phono-stage. They can't predict just one loading value universally. Gain, yes. Loading, no. Part of it is personal preference too. Do you like things more lively, bright and dynamic, or not so much? For example, for the two Lyra cartridges on my Naim Superline I found that 470Ω sounds best. However, now I'm home auditioning a Boulder phono-stage and find my Lyra Atlas (stereo) needs more loading with it, so I prefer 225Ω or even 100Ω with it so far. For the mono Lyra 100Ω seems spot on. I have yet to try my Dynavector on the Boulder. Mike Pranka (the US DV distributor) told me the XV-1s likes about 100Ω, but I use 453Ω for it on my Naim Superline. Maybe on the Boulder 100Ω will be correct as he suggests. As another example, Keith Herron designed his VTPH-2a tube phono-stage to run wide open with LOMC cartridges (i.e. no loading at all).
@Josquin des Prez ‘Cloud Dance’ is an excellent recommendation as a good test lp. It’s my go-to subwoofer-tester too.
Yeah, "Prancing" is excellent for setting up and dialing in a sub. David Holland is unleashed on that.
