I have been reading a lot of posts on this great forum since then, never dared posting as I could find most of the answers here, and was not knowledgeable enough to help I think. After proper alignment and setup, I set VTF to 1.9 and started listening to my N°1 favorite record for assessing sound: (Getz/Gilberto/Jobim). top end and high midrange was noticably restricted,high treble in particular sounded muffled and generally absent...detail levels were low and the lumpy bloated bass was devoid of any real articulation...

If it were my system I would use my CBS STR100 to take sweep measurements at the phono preamp output, and graph the different loading options. I would then use whatever option gave me the flattest/most accurate response. TT is a Denon DP23-F that I got a few months ago "almost new" for €40 in replacement of my AT-LP5 that I never really liked.