You have two very old cartridges with unknown provenance. Plus you give no information about your audio system, especially your phono stage. So there are many possible causes among which it is impossible to distinguish without more data, and even then it may be a crapshoot.
ADC moving-iron cartridge has "low" output
I have two identical ADC gold-body XLM-III carts from the late 70s. I purch'd them used, as part of two turntables that were each purchased from different parts of the US. Each cart has a different model of stylus (XLM-III and QLN-2) , and styluses can be interchanged.
The MI series from ADC should output 5.5mV, which I have not measured. However, BOTH these carts are challenged wrt output volume. Not only do I have to crank up the vol. more than 1/3 above other carts, but the sonics are a bit "small" and not "full bodied". It might be due to weakening permanent magnetism -- these are both getting close to 50 yrs old .
The perm. magnet in ADC moving iron series is mounted in the removable stylus, just above the stylus/cantilever assemble.
Not sure what else the low volume may be due to??? These are my my only MI carts in my collection. Anyone know more?
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OVER-information can lead to wild speculation. I gave this forum all that was important. The rest should be assumed as "all else held equal". Perhaps others have more USEFUL responses. |
Others may confirm that they have similar experiences, but, the explanation of the cause will just be guesses. Your guess sounds credible. Another guess would be that the suspension damping rubber donut has hardened and is now restricting the movement of the cantilever. At this age, it could be a combination of causes. |
That cartridge has an output of 1.1 mv. Not 5.5 mv! ADC XLM Mk. IIINamespacesPage actionsDataGeneral
Frequency response:
20 - 24,000 Hz (±1.5 dB)
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Yogiboy, what is your source? LP Gear shows output 5.5mv as OP stated. https://www.lpgear.com/product/ADCXLMMKIII.html This from a discussion on Vinyl Engine: "I have all those ADC carts too, and many more. Not a single one suffers from low output. Unless the stylus is not mounted properly on the cartridge. That covers the Point 4, 10E MKII and IV, XLM MKII, Q36, K6, QLM 30/32/34/36 MKIII and MKII, Integra XLMIII, 220XE, XLM/VLM/ZLM MKIII and Astrion. Something is amiss in your cartridge or system, someplace." lewm I think it is fair to assume OP has other cartridges and knows all else in his system is ok, or you could simply ask him if he is sure that is true. thus, something is wrong with the cartridge output, and only people with experience with ADC cartridges will know that.
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Forgive a bit of time since last working with these cartridges, but I set up several turntables with ADC cartridges back in the mid to late 1970s. They were quite good performers, tracked well, generally had low distortion. If my memory serves if there was a shortfall it was inconsistency in performance occasionally, meaning their QC at the factory was not as high as Shure with their V15 series or Stanton with their 681 series, both excellent. In fact Stanton was easily the industry leader as far as consistent performance from unit to unit went. The guy who frustrated me all to hell was Joe Grado, whose QC as terrible. He could make the best sounding cartridges, but also ones that just wouldn't set up properly at all. And when we would return them as defective he was, well to put it mildly, not well pleased. Anyway, back to ADC, if your cartridges track well, and you can hear if they do with any good test record, use 1.0 gram VTF, then you have good ones. They should sound on the lean side of neutral and track well across any well made record with no distortion. |