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The Devil is in the Cartridge Setup (and a good phone pre)...

I had a freak out moment--or shall I say 2 days because that's how long it went on. 

I've been on these forums posting various things, noting my vinyl bested my digital and that's why I'm looking to figure out how to up my digital front end.  Well, my vinyl end became harsher, dirtier and grainier.  That's the best that I can do. 

No wait....I can say this.  I listen to tons of stuff and I use Norah Jones albums as a reference.  I know she should sound sweet, centered and pure.  I was tube rolling, re-positioning speakers and not able to roll things back. 

I recently "upgraded" two dirt cheap Texas Instruments op amps in my Manley Chinook to Burr Brown models, which had way better specs.  Could it be that BB op amps weren't doing the trick and causing the dry, dirty vinyl? 

After several days, I went back through my cartridge alignment and settings.  What I found was all was fine and dandy on positioning due to using a Feickert protractor, BUT I recently pumped up the tracking force to the upper limit, 2.0 grams, for the cart (AudioTechnica ART9).  I moved it back down to the minimal setting, 1.6 grams.  All is good. 

Maybe the cart's suspension wears over time and less force or weight is needed. I don't know.  

Phew.  I'm back in vinyl nirvana.  I was wondering if I needed different gear, meds, etc. to get back to where I once was happy.  

PS  And yes, the op amp "upgrade" made less difference than just setting my cart to where it sounds best. 
jbhiller

Showing 3 responses by soundermn

soundermn's avatar
soundermn
344 posts
 
I see this happening more and more often in this forum.  It's getting more and more petty, and the personal attacks are getting out of hand.  OP came in to share his experience, which I found interesting.  I'd like to hear more about the changes due to the OpAmp in the Chinook.  We all make mistakes... kudos to the OP for being man enough to share his mistake.

And, I'd like to hear far FAR less of people calling each other fools (or much worse that I've seen), even if it's prefaced with "all due respect".  Frankly, any time you start with "all due respect", you are about to be disrespectful and you know it.

These kinds of trolls are making the forum less and less fun for me.  Can't we just get back to sharing experiences and stop verbally assaulting one another? Every thread seems to devolve into this kind of drivel after 5 to 10 posts.  Look at the archives, and it wasn't this way in the past.
soundermn's avatar
soundermn
344 posts
 
Back to the thread... I was listening to Norah Jones last night, and did notice that on some songs on "Day Breaks" album, it seems like the microphone is either too hot, or she's too close.  It makes her voice sound a bit over-done or over-produced and it's not so good.  But, it's only in a few spots that I noticed.

With your Manley, did the Op Amps change the sound?  I thought I read somewhere that Eva was quoted saying the Op Amps are for some purpose other than amplification, and aren't in the signal chain.  But, I don't remember the details.  
soundermn's avatar
soundermn
344 posts
 
Found it:  

Mrs. Eveanna Manley explained: “Those opamps are performing as a DC voltage servo in order to bias the FET operational point. Those opamps are not in the signal path. They just stabilize a DC voltage needed to set the operational point of the FETs”.
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