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Empire EDR9 cart into Lehmann Audio Decade phono preamp, sounds awful

I've just installed Empire EDR9 cartridge on my Jelco SA-750E 10 inch tonearm, and connected it to my Lehmann Audio Decade phono preamp. The sound I got from this cartridge is shockingly bad. Dull, wimpy, limp, barely any highs or any slam or body.

I have set my Lehmann Audio Decade phono to work beautifully with my modded Denon DL-103 cartridge. I was curious to hear how would Empire EDR9 compare to DL-103, but it sounds so ridiculously bad, that it's not really worth comparing.

My Lehmann Decade is set to 100 ohms (seems to work fine for DL-103). I haven't touched the capacitance.

What am I doing wrong? I can't believe that Empire EDR9, which has a pretty hot reputation in audio circles, would sound so horrible.

 

crazybookman
crazybookman OP
24 posts
 

How do I set gain for MM not MC on Lehmann Audio Decade? I only see MC toggle. Is MM on when MC is off?

Post removed 
crazybookman OP
24 posts
 

Heh, what a confusing interface. The phono sound quality for MC is absolutely amazing, but it's so hard to get the MM stage to work properly.

Who came up with such terrible user experience? Do the Lehmann designers secretly wish customers would only use MC carts?

lewm
12,537 posts
 

Do you have an owner or user manual? If not, you can probably get one from Lehmann or any of several other sources on line.  Then read it. (Sorry for the sarcasm.)

tablejockey
3,793 posts
 

The manual is available here. Looks straight forward once you know where everything is.

https://www.lehmannaudio.com/downloads.html

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