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RE: Cartridge coil questions

My experience suggests that many digital multimeters have low enough current output on ohms measurements to prevent damage to cartridge coils. However, this is really just an educated guess because I haven't tested more than two or three digital multimeters. The older analog ohmmeteres produce significant current and should not be used to measure phono cartridges.

If you are at all concerned about damaging your phono cartridge using your digital multimeter, simply add a 1000-ohm resistor in series with one of the probes when measuring coil resistance. That will further limit current through the cartridge coil. You will then need to subtract the value of your series resistor from all your coil measurements.

I don't think coil resistance has a direct relationship to cartridge output voltage. However, in a stereo cartridge, both coils should have the same resistance. Any difference might indicated a channel imbalance. I imagine 5% is acceptable, though. However, I think the tolerance on my LOMC cartridges might be a bit tighter than that. Maybe not!

Good luck,
John Elison


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