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Clearaudio Concept TT subpar sound quality

Hi all,

happy to have joined this great community and I hope you guys can help me.

I have a Concept turntable with concept arm and MM Clearaudio standard cartridge. The basic setup. It is connected to a Pro-Ject Phono Box E BT preamp that goes into a streaming hub (via a 3.5mm aux) and from there to my Buchardt A500 speakers. Lots of things the purists will not like but I am not a hardcore purist, so that’s ok.

My problem: the music coming out from the turntable is way worse than the same music being streamed from Spotify. So much that I am currently listening music only via Spotify. The sound from the turntable lacks in clarity and it seems to “saturate” the speakers.

I have verified the track force of the cartridge which is between 2 and 2.2 (depending where on the platter).

I am thinking the problem could be resolved with a better cartridge and phono preamp but would like to know what you guys think.

Thanks!!

agforte
agforte OP
10 posts
 

Thank you for your kind words Sandstone, I do hope I will be able to solve this issue. BTW I did level the platter. The only thing I have not done is play with the anti-skate as it is rather tricky on this TT. I do hope that's not the culprit of the problem because modifying that would be out of my comfort zone.

Talking about the Concept TT, I would not buy it again... mostly because of all the settings being so hard to reach (except for the VTF, everything is at the bottom of the TT). Just my opinion.

imhififan's avatar
imhififan
2,182 posts
 

@agforte

IMHO, the best way to connect the turntable to your system is using a phono preamp with built-in volume control and directly connect to your active speakers analog inputs.

Something like a used PS Audio GCPH phono preamp or any analog preamp with built-in phono stage should do the trick.

 

agforte OP
10 posts
 

Reading again the comment by Sandstone: does any of you get different VTF readings at different locations on the platter? I do and the platter is perfectly leveled in every direction.

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