Technics MC305

[SY]

A vintage Technics 305 MC cartridge has arrived at the Y House, courtesy of planet10. I'm buried in the design phase of a new phono preamp to match it, but am unable to find any information on loading. Does anyone have any experience with this unit or have some magazine writeup on it which might give me a starting point?

TIA.

 

[Netlist]

A friend technician at Panasonic might be able to help if he knew of a corresponding turntable originally used with the cartridge. Assuming the 305 is a moving coil, he can only find info on MM’s at the moment.

/Hugo

 

[SY]

This was sold as a standalone, usually mounted in a headshell suitable for the EPA-250 tonearm tube. Technics made a companion step-up transformer (there was a rave review in Audio), but no step up ratio or load was specified in their literature. My own measurements suggest a 0.15-0.2mV output at 5cm/s with a 25 ohm source impedance.

If your buddy knows anywhere I could find a stylus for an EPC100C-MkIV (a MM), I can give up the whole MC notion...

 

[analog_sa]

Hi SY

Sounds like a very interesting cart with ultra low moving mass.

Why would you be too concerned with loading? 470R as a safe starting point and you should probably tweak it by ear. It may turn out to be a lot more sensitive to VTF and VTA anyway.

 

[SY]

Because loading is critical for the preamp design. Decreasing input resistance or increasing input capacitiance is easy, but going the other way might entail some major rebuilding. I'd feel more comfortable with an approximate target.

 

[Netlist]

Complete silence at Panasonic.

/Hugo

 

[harhaug]

The EPC 300MC has a low output of 0.1 mV. The matching step-up amplifier SU 300MC has a 47 Ohm load as far as I know. Look around at http://wega.we.funpic.de/technics.html for old technics material.

- Harald

 

[SY]

Muchas gracias, amigos!