Clearaudio Insider Wood output question???


Evening all,

I have a couple of questions about the Clearaudio Insider Wood Reference Cartridge, but first - the background...

This weekend I visited a friend who has relatively recently purchased a Clearaudio Insider Wood cartridge, and a very pricey Clearaudio table. A couple of us spent the day Sunday troubleshooting some noise and setup issues, and the output of the cartridge seemed a little bit low. The cartridge is rated for an output of .6 mV, and it seemed to us that a cartridge that we compared rated at .35 mV sounded several dB louder at given volume levels on the preamp.

At this point, I have to say that the Clearaudio cartridge sounded like it was working well enough - no distortion or unbalance, good tracking, very musical, etc, in other words it sounded right, just not as loud as it should be given the spec sheet. The cartridge loading was 100 ohms.

Is there a chance that this cartridge is flawed, and is there any certain way to test it? Does anyone know of any reason to think the the output of the cartridge is over-rated? If it was your cartridge would YOU be concerned? Is there anything I'm not thinking about that could be an issue?

As always, your helpful input is greatly appreciated,

George
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Showing 2 responses by nilthepill

Have you verified the VTF? it is slightly higher than normal. When you say not loud enough, it is as if you have to strain at 'normal' volume? I have loaded mine at 100 ohms on Clearaudio MR TT /Master TQ1/Everest stand and with Vendeatta Reseaech and I am in absolute heaven. You cannot better the performance!!
George, like others have said, it could be the cartridge loading may be too low. If I recall correctly, recommended loading for this cartridge is around 500 ohms. Compare this value to the other's. This could explain the descrepancy. (Assuming that all cartridges were loaded at 100 ohms)