Volume?


I recently acquired a CJ Sonographe SG 3 with an Audioquest PT 7 arm and a Blue Point cart. I am using it with a Marantz 2226 receiver and Paradigm Studio 40 speakers. I'm new to vinyl so I have a question. I notice that some albums seem to play louder than others and also it seems like I need to turn the volume up around the 12 o'clock position to get decent playing levels. I do have the TT plugged into the phono input with the ground attached. Any advice or is this the norm? Thanks again for any advice.
sprink
The albums aren't that big of a difference. Truthfully, I noticed my Elton John albums seemed lower than the others, but it seems the same way on my cd's with his stuff. The 12:00 position is good with me, I just was curious because it seems like when just the tuner is playing it is considerably louder at a lower position. Thanks again for the input. I'm really enjoying this little rig. I have all my dads old albums and the Marantz was his when I was a kid. I saved it from being thrown out a couple of years ago and a good friend gave me the TT..it was just collecting dust in his closet.
Tuners are also higher output just like CD'S (2 volts).So what you have is normal.
There is alot of variation in how loudly LPs are mastered. I own around 9,000 LPs and play 4-5 LPs a day. Some records I have to really turn the volume knob up to get good volume and dynamics, and with others, the music just effortlessly jumps out of the grooves and comes to life at a lower volume setting. So what you are experiencing is normal. I've noticed that the longer the playing time of an LP, the lower the mastering volume tends to be.