Help LP playback is lacking

Albertporter, You seem very knowledgeable in this area. Please leave your e-mail or phone no. I'm surprised your lack of bass on cd's. Thanks snook2

Snook2, I just got my Wolcott amps yesterday, and notice a lack in bass on both the LP and CD. Obviously, mine are not broken in yet, so lets skip that as a problem until I know more. My Wolcotts have already had three sets of input tubes, and one additional set of outputs, the difference is huge, even with no break in time! However, lets consider for the moment that the Wolcott is NOT the problem, still you must consider the tubes in the PHONO (RIAA), which play a tremendous role in the tonal balance of your analog. Also, you have to consider the effect of the interconnect cable from the TNT to the phono, the set up of the turntable and arm, and the LOAD on the Benz. If the Benz looking into a high (that is) excessive load, the result is low bass output! Other items to consider is the support for the TNT, the power cord to the TNT, the power cord to the phono stage, and the tonearm cable and connectors. Please reveal more details, there is no reason that your analog should not please you! I will be pleased to speak with you in person if necessary.

Great feedback. My turntable is probably a bit close to one speaker,about 2 feet. I'll start there. Keep the feedback coming.

I agree with David99, try lowering your VTA and checking the tubes in the phono section of the CAT. Insure that they are NOS. If 12AX7 are used, try 5751. Also, check the load impedance on the input of the phono stage. If it is 47K ohm and your cartridge wants to see 100 ohm, this will certainly add to the bright character. Goodluck.

I also have the Aries, JMW 10 tonearm,but the CAT Mark 111 Pre-amp with phono. I don't believe you can find a better stand alone phono preamp than the CAT's phono section for less than 5000.00. I would look at the cartridge, I am using a Grado Reference High Output and it's an excellent match with the table,arm and CAT. It has a full dynamnic sound with adequate bass in my system. I agree that a change in phono cables probably would only make a limited improvement. Good luck, you have a quality system.

Lower your V.T.A. a bit towards the pivot point and see what happens.

I also have the Aries, JM 10 in and the original ruby2 which has a lower output than yours. I use the ARC PH3se phono preamp and get a full frequency response and a quality sound. My cables are Tara Decades which are a little briter than my old arc litzlink I used to use but this is merely a tweek, so I would demo a different phono preamp before monkeying around with cables. I also use an isolation sandbox and a low resonance type table to rest the aires on, both will help. How far away from those dunlavys is your aries? The resonance will kill your sound! This type of stuff all makes a difference. Remember that vinyl may sound better, sweeter etc but I think that you will never get as much "slam" from a disk vs a cd. Also there are major variations in recording qualities on records, so test using a great recording and enjoy!.