The old cartridge is more than likely past it's prime and also I would worry about stylus wear. It would be a good idea to have it examined and possibly rebuilt. HOWEVER, the MC 10 has a stupidly low output and you are certain to have a poor signal to noise ratio with it. You will be much better off with a modern cartridge with a higher output. I would suggest a Soundsmith Zephyr. It will match your tonearm nicely, It has 4 times the output of the MC 10 and company support is second to none.
Some cartridge recommendations
I have recently acquired a Panasonic SP-10 TT with an Ortofon MC10 cartridge. I am using the phono section of my Modwright 225I for phono play back. I am thinking a more modern MC cart would be a better choice. The tone arm is a SME 3009 series II improved. I am new enough at vinyl playback that I am not sure what a good match for a cart would be. Any comments would be appreciated, thanks.
Showing 2 responses by mijostyn
Then as Raul explained,. you will either have to get a step up transformer or go to a high output cartridge. Soundsmith makes a high output version of The Zephyr called the Voice. I owned one and it is an excellent cartridge, but on the more expensive side. It will run perfectly with 50 dB of gain. You can get excellent transformers for less, but then you have the possibility of having a cartridge past it's due date. IMHO, unless you want to go all in on a phono stage with over 60 dB of gain you will be better off with a high output cartridge. There are several decent ones in the 550 to 1000 dollar price range. the Goldring 1042 and the Nagaoka MP500 come to mind as well as the Ortofon 2M Black LVB. Grado also makes a fine cartridge. I read that the MC10 had an output of 0.07 mv. @rauliruegas is sure to know the answer. I was referring to the Zephyr MIMC, I should have specified. The OP does not have enough gain anyway.
|