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Cartridge Question

I'm new to all of this, so pardon me if I ask a stupid question. I recently changed the cartridge on my Music Hall MMF-7 from the stock 5mV Goldring Eroica (MC) to an 8mV Ortofon 2M Black (MM). The reason for this was because I was told by the manufacturer that my new Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum needed a higher output cartridge for the internal phono gain stage. While the clarity of the new cartridge has improved dramatically, the warmth of the tube amp basically went away. I decided to put on several different genres of vinyl in an effort to figure out what was ruining the entire reason I purchased the tube amp in the first place. As best I can tell, there is some distortion occurring at higher frequencies; thus what I suspect is drowning out the lower warmth I enjoyed so much when I first received my amp. Any suggestions?
brentwoodleafale

Showing 2 responses by brentwoodleafale

brentwoodleafale OP
3 posts
 
Mofimadness - I had it professionally set-up by the shop's owner, so I am going to make the assumption that it was done correctly. (hopefully anyway). He alluded to the difference in sound quality when I picked it up, without being overly specific, as he really wanted me to draw my own conclusions.

I tried to isolate it with some brass (Miles Davis), and sax (Coleman Hawkins). However, it really came out when I switched to an original copy of Stevie Ray Vaughn lp, playing the track "Lenny." The guitar's high notes instantly revealed the distortion point. Before then, I had never heard this on my Thiels.

Although the tube amp was warmed up for 30 minutes prior, things never changed for the next couple of hours. I never realized that cartridges needed a break-in time, so thanks for the heads up. I was beginning to wonder if I should have just gone with a pre-amp first.

Jaybo- You are 100% correct. The Goldring is much warmer, but the output was lacking to the point that I had to turn the volume to a minimum of 50 percent, just to "really hear" the music.

Thanks to both of you for your thoughts.
brentwoodleafale OP
3 posts
 
I am very grateful for all of your advice. As we speak, I am putting a few hours each day on the cartridge to give it time to break in. I am also studying up on how to make the adjustments to VTA, azimuth, etc. I never realized the importance of knowing how to make all of these adjustments myself; especially considering the lack of qualified professionals still practicing this lost art. I am glad that Music Hall took the time to write a detailed owners manual to discuss these issues.

Emorrisiv: Thanks for the heads up on the tools. I sort of got sticker shock after looking at Music Direct's catalog for cartridge set-up tools; which was the main reason I decided to have a my local repair shop do it. Does the size of the scale matter? I have a pretty accurate Pelouze Model SP5 that has a 6 inch wide surface. I believe this is actually a postal scale.

Raul: You mentioned "total capacitance value." If my cartridge specs load capacitance at a range of 150-300 pF, but the receiver specs at 150 pF, would being on the lower end of this scale have any effect? (FYI: The load resistance for both the cartridge and the amps internal phono stage are both spec'd as 47 kOhms). Furthermore, considering the amp only has about 25 hours on it, shouldn't the capacitors have more time on them to break in? (I read some place where a pre-amp needed a cd to be played for about 100 hours to give the capacitors time to break in).

Many thanks for all of your comments!
Scott
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