Yes, there is a break-in period on cartridges. There are also some adjustments, such as VTA that are required when you change cartridges. Play it for about 20 hours, and then adjust the VTA by ear. You can start out with the VTA adjusted so that the tonearm is level with the record surface while it is playing. Then adjust by tonal balance by lowering the pivot end of the arm to increase bass, and raising to decrease bass, in very very small increments. Once you get a tonal balance that is close, you can very slightly adjust it to place the surface noise out of the plane of the music.
???Cartridge break in???
I just fired up a Nottingham space deck (with space arm)with a dynavector 20X cartridge. My first impression, after all of 30 minutes? Deep, subwoofer bass is not there. Very sharp , thin compressed high end. Somewhat narrow soundstage; I have Audio Physic virgos and know what the hell a soundstage is. Is this the newness of the cartridge? Or something with analog itself? What are the general characteristics of analog vs. digital? What is gained, and what is lost? thanks..........Mark