My ARC Ref 3 Phono SE really, really hates MM cartridges

I recently mounted a Clearaudio Charisma V2.1 MM. I run it through my Ref Phono 3SE to Burmester 088 and 911 mk3. The load is set on 47k and gain is set on low. 25’ Balanced Transparent Reference series hook the 3SE to the 088.

The sound improved over the first 50 hours of play. At this point, over 100 hours in, it sounds quite good. I have several TTs going here. Two of the others are sporting much more expensive LOMC Lyras.

It is not hard to tell which TT/cartridge is being played, but all three sound very good, and I could live long term with any of them.

At least this one MM is playing very nicely with my Ref Phono 3SE.

Edit: it is a shortcoming of the ARC phono preamps that they do not allow you to adjust capacitive load, but my experience is that it’s not a serious shortcoming. Jonathan Carr posted in another thread that you’re actually loading the preamp, not the cartridge. In my experience the ARC phono preamps have been quite robust and aren’t prone to unpleasant responses. I wonder if yours needs some TLC from ARC. Email them. Historically they’ve been good to respond with either a possible fix, or a return authorization. They are fully staffed now, so repairs are getting done in reasonable time frames.

Also, have you tried both inputs? Have you checked to see that equalization is set right? If equalization has been inadvertently set wrong, that is noticeable to my ears very quickly.

Definitely sounds like something's wrong with that unit. Maybe the loading or gain isn't getting switched correctly? When I had mine I didn't run MM carts, but I preferred running MC's with an outboard SUT into the Ref 3SE's Low Gain mode @ 47K load - so it was in fact quite like running MM. It was quite tolerant of overload - I must have been feeding it around 10mV at times (coming out of the SUT), and it never broke a sweat.

That configuration is still the about best phono amplification I've heard.