In the world of lp playback, as well as tubes, there is never truly a happy end. Only that brief moment in time between changes when we are happy. :)
New Cartridge Causing Intermittent Popping
Vinyl Experts, I need help in diagnosing a problem.
Before this last weekend, I had three (3) cartridges in my stable: Kiseki Purpleheart, Dynavector 20x2; Benz Micro LPS. None of these carts made any significant popping noise. I gave an AudioTechnica ART9 to a good friend last year. That had no such popping noise issue either.
This weekend I installed a brand new Goldring Ethos MC cartridge. It sounds glorious out of the box and is opening up a bit. Very seductive sounding pickup.
But the Ethos is exhibiting intermittent yet consistent popping when playing all sorts of clean, excellent shape vinyl. The popping is as loud as the source material and disruptive. It comes with no notice, stops and starts up with a single pop every so and so. [I haven't timed it]. I can, however, sometimes get through a side with one or no pops. For the most part it is still there.
I setup the cartridge with my Feickert protractor. Pretty easy setup compared to my other carts.
Some aftermarket Jelco headshell leads were a touch a loose where they affix to the arm. I tried crimping them down but to less than perfect status. I've ordered new ones to see if that is the problem.
I've never had any noise issues with my Manley Chinook phono preamp. The lion's share of my collection sounds just great with it until this issue arose. Most of my records that are in excellent shape do not exhibit snap, crackles, or pops unless you crank the volume during a very quiet passage--and even then they are not easily audible.
Goldring says the following:
Load resistance
100 Ω
Load capacitance
100 - 1000 pF
Playing weight
1.5 - 2.0 g (1.75 g)
This cartridge sounds wonderful--especially for the price tag. I really want to fix this small but annoying issue.
Advice?
Setup:
Source - Technics SL1200 GAE
Phono Preamp- Manley Chinook
Integrated Amp - Marantz PM KI Ruby
Thank you folks! Solving this is a priority for me. Your help is greatly appreciated.
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- 32 posts total
Thank you @noromance ! I agree--so often these situations get messy and even ore frustrating. @duckmanst3 , philosophically you are correct! :) |
Good for you. Troubleshooting that kind of thing can be maddening. I had an intermittent crackle a few years ago. Swapped out leads, all new tubes in everything (a little premature, but I wanted to make sure), a wanky XLR connector that I sent back to the manufacturer to determinate, a funky tube socket in my phono stage that got replaced. Still no joy. I was swapping battery packs inside my line stage when I saw a bit of fluff- dust, whatever, on the contact plate. Dusted that off and viola! Back in bidness. The process did make me go through the entire system to get there, though. Glad you got it sorted. My wife says I seem happiest when I'm cursing a blue streak, sweating, grunting, and crawling around the hi-fi gear. I guess. But glad to be rid of the problem. |
Bill, your problem would make me go mad for sure! It takes patience, diagnostics, logic, and luck to get out of these situations. I was also concerned about the Chinook. I'm pretty confident in my skills, but I was concerned something happened from several upgrades I made to the unit. I told myself, I knew what I was doing and Manley even approved of them, but you never know. Even experienced techs make mistakes, equipment fails, and with electronics weird stuff can happen. |
- 32 posts total