Cartridge Break-In


Installed new cartridge and was just wondering about break-in techniques. Manufacturer recommends 50 hrs of playing time to presumably work in the suspension components. Obviously, playing a record would work best, but would simply placing the tonearm/cartridge on a non-spinning record and leaving it there also contribute to break-in? I'm thinking it really wouldn't be as effective since the suspension has only been displaced, but is not kept in motion the way playing a record would cause. Here's where it get strange, suppose I placed my turntable (a non-suspension design) on top of my subwoofer and played some bass oriented music thru my CD player? I could play with the volume level to control the amount of acoustic transfer from the sub to the turntable/arm/cartridge and thereby "excite" the cartridge into some sort of, hopefully controlled, motion. Alternatively, I could place the turntable directly in front of my woofers and play music at a high volume from a digital source. Would any of these "techniques" even roughly accomplish what playing a record does as far as cartridge break-in goes?

Just speculating on a hypothesis.
onhwy61

Showing 2 responses by emilg1955

A very interesting idea! I purchased a Benz Ruby 3H last year and it was unlistenable for about 100 hours. After that it was muddy and lacked detail and speed up untill 150 hours. Since then, it has become the magic that is Benz and is still gaining speed and detail. But I had to play 200 records/ 150 hours to get to this point. Benz also says 40 hours to break in-not true with the Ruby 3 anyway. After 40 hours-it was ear fry city.

Any method that could get you thru the breakin period without play a boatload of records would be welcome. Your method sounds feasable as the movement by groove modulation is miniscule.

However, the breakin may be attributed to the large swings of the cantilever caused by non flat parts of the record. In this case you're method wouldn't work.

Anyone know which movement contributes the most to break-in?
Found out on another forum the correct loading for a Ruby 3 is 22K. Night and day-analog magic to be sure. I do wish Benz made this information available. I am not sure why reviewers found this cartridge so outstanding without the correct loading. 47K was horrendous in a system with extended high frequency response and 1K dull and muddy. It is one of the finest I have heard correctly loaded except no one would know that most running at 1 or 47K.