Goldring MC - Q. I have an EAR MC3 step-up transformer and have 40ohm, 12ohm, 4ohm options, which should I use with Elite cartridge?
Answer:
Goldring MCs have quite high outputs compared to the number of windings so, they don’t need much “stepping up”. On the EAR MC3 40 ohm setting you have a gain of x10 which gives an output level to your MM input of 5 mV which is perfect. On this setting the cartridge would “see” an input impedance of 470 ohms looking into the primary side of the transformer which again is perfect in our opinion.
If the sound was overly bright or uncontrolled at the top end and you wanted to increase the amount of electrical damping by lowering the input impedance, you could try the 12 ohm setting. This would give an input impedance of 118 ohm which is nearer to the minimum recommended for this model (it has an internal impedance of 8 ohms so it should work into a load at lest ten times larger). This input however gives a gain of x20 so, you might risk overloading the MM input with a 10 mV input level – you will need to check the specifications of the MM input to be used.
On the 4ohm setting the gain is x30 which would probably lead to clipping, plus the impedance is too low at 53 ohms so, we would definitely suggest avoiding that.
In our opinion, sticking to the 40 ohm setting would be the best option.