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I think I bought the wrong cartridge
Harry Lavo intoned:
"Russ Stedman" wrote in message ... Well, I finally got myself a decent turntable (Technics SL1200 MK2), but my records all sound pretty crappy. Could it be the cartridge ? It's a Shure M44G. I've set it up with a pressure gauge to the recommended 1.5g and aligned it the best I can, but it's pretty lacking for sound quality. The main problem is high-end sybalence and distortion...hit-hats and vocal sss's sound really awful. Yeah, it's a crappy cartridge. If you are partial to Shures, buy a Shure 97E, for under a hundred bucks. It's a decent cartridge. Or better yet, buy an Audio Technica 440 which is better at $100. Then you'll have a "fair" vinyl system. If you really get into vinyl, you'll probably eventually want to further upgrade both turntable and cartridge. While I might generally agree with Harry on how good or bad an M44 is, I think the original poster is complaining of problems of a far more serious nature than just cartridge quality. That being said, I have one important piece of advice for the original poster: STOP PLAYING YOUR RECORDS UNTIL YOU GET THIS PROBLEM FIXED!!!! The statement "main problem is high-end sybalence and distortion...hit-hats and vocal sss's sound really awful" is, to me, a significant clue that we're lloking at some very serious mistracking, enough so that it's quite possibly causing damage to the records. This, to me, sounds like a serious setup problem. I'd investigate the following: 1. It's the wrong cartridge for the wrong tone-arm/turntable. What model tone arm or turntable? 2. The tone arm could be broken, with sticky bearings. 3. You may THINK it's tracking at 1.5 grams (*a little on the light side for this cartridge), but how do you, in fact, know it is? This very much depends upon the tone arm and turntable, and the dial may or may not be accurate and may need resetting. 4. You said you "aligned it as best you can." What does that mean? One of the symptoms of misalignment is just as you describe. 5. It's possible that, even though it's a new cartridge, it's defective. Once again, it's my string recommendation that, until you get this sorted out, DO NOT PLAY ANY RECORDS THAT YOU VALUE. This sort of mistracking can damage the records permanently. +---------------------------------------+ | Dick Pierce | | Professional Audio Development | | (1) 781/826-4953 Voice and FAX | | | +---------------------------------------+ |
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