Shelter 501 II owners: how long is the break-in?

I have about 100 hours now and the cartridge sound completely turned around.It is so beautiful now that i am pulling out lps that i hardly ever listened to and discover the music from scratch.

Wow, just mounted this brand new and up and running on an MM7 playing my original mint copy of Roxy Music's Live EP. Everything sounds excellent and no flabby bass at all, just solid sweetness extended up and down all around. If the cart stays just like this I will be happy. Hard to imagine at this early stage how much better it is going to get. More to come after I pick my jaw up off the floor, that is if I can find it. So, so much better than the stock Goldring that came with this deck.

I am running a Mac 402 Amp, a Mac 2300 Preamp, using the MC tube Phono stage in the Mac with my Shelter 501 II. I have about 75 hours break in time so far. My Shelter still sounds tiny and the base isn't coming on like I hoped. I previously had a Denon DL160 that to me sounded a lot more natural. I still have hopes of it getting better since it was reviewed so well.

I know people are going to yell, but the problem is with your preamp not having enough gain on the MC...it's rated at 60db for MC......the Shelter has a very low output and you should be using a phono preamp with higher gain for MC...more like 70-75db. The Jolida JD9 has that kind of gain, as do others. I auditioned and bought the Shelter and it's fantastic on my Amadeus TT.

Output of the 501 Mk II is 0.5 mV at 1kHz 5cm/sec., certainly not "very low" but rather medium output. 60 dB gain should be sufficient as long as noise is not excessive and input impedance loading is correct.

Shelter dealer.