Is my new cartridge TOO good?

[bobbyrae]

Originally Posted by thunderroad

That Audio Technica is in very good MM cartridge! Personally, I don't think you can have "too good" of a cartridge, but a top quality transducer like the AT440MLa will reproduce everything on the record.

They discontinued my cartridge, the AT440ML/OCC, and replaced it with the AT440MLa. It's confusing, I know. But the MLa is much less expensive and does not have the same specs.

[bobbyrae]

Originally Posted by ARJohn

The AT440 is described as a pretty bright cart and takes awhile to break in and settle down , so I read on here. So some hours of use may help tame the noise a bit , but a simple diy cleaning system would also help with the old vinyl . I do have some older used LP's that no amount of cleaning will repair , they must have been played with a nail , the sound of bacon in the pan .

Yes, "breaking in a cartridge" is a concept that I have just come to. I am in the process of doing that, so maybe things will change in a week or so.

[bobbyrae]

Originally Posted by markshan

One is hyper elliptical, the other conical (I think). They are contacting different parts of the record. The 440 will often "get below the damage" but in the end it depends on where the damage is. For the larger problem to be down deep like that is unusual. I would suspect (if this is used vinyl) that a previous cleaning attempt went badly and forced gunk into the bottom of the grooves. I would try a good soak and clean on the record.

repeated cleanings may do good things. I am also breaking in the cartridge, which could also make a big difference.

[bobbyrae]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

....

Additionally, it could also be that your stylus from your old cartridge is not as good as the stylus on the A-T with respect to resolving musical detail. This could be due to the fact that the stylus is worn, or the design of the new A-T stylus is superior at resolving detail. Any cart mfr will tell you that it all comes down to the stylus, it's design, mass, tip configuration, orientation, etc. with respect to the cartridge performance. The carts in many mfr lines are identical except for the stylus. For example, the Grado Prestige 1 Black, Green, Blue, Red, Silver, and Gold carts: they are all the same cartridge except that they have better styli and tighter tolerances as you go up the model line from Black to Gold.
...

I am really grateful for most of what you said as it is very insightful. I should have stated early on what the "old" cartridge was. It is a Signet (made by A-T in the 70's and 80's) and I just put a new stylus on it that has a shibata needle. So it's not worn. But I think that the Signet (model TK3e) was also an "introductory high-end" cartridge - that is, the Signet was their high end stuff, but this was the bottom of the line model.

[KentTeffeteller]

The Audio-Technica AT 440 MLa and AT 120 E/T need around 30-40 hours of break in time before they open up and the brash treble goes away. After break-in they aren't as bad about surface noise. The old Signet line is no slouch either.

[Tim70_99]

I am in broad agreement with what others have said and that you need to let your cartridge break in properly. My Ortofon MC20FL has had about 60 hrs of use and it still sounds as if it needs more. I also have a Moth RCM cleaning machine, it works absoloute wonders on dirty vinyl but cannot rescue a poor pressing or groove damage. Expensive, I will admit, but worth it if you have lots of LP's. Incidentally, I have an early(ish) copy of Aqualung and in spite of careful cleaning noise is still present, whether wear or a bad pressing is to blame I cannot say but I must again point out that deep cleaning is not always sucessfull.

[Susurus]

Newbie comment, please ignore if you like.

1.4 g is what Audio Technica says for this cart. I found that increasing the tracking force by a small amount-- 1.25 to 1.4 or 1.4 to 1.6 g reduced the noise quite a bit.

My first instinct was to track at the lowest end of the specified range for a cart, maybe I was skip-jumping at lower force settings and the mid to higher end of its range kept me in the groove.

Line-contact or similar tip shapes are the most sensitive to VTA, and if the angle is tilted too far one way you can get worse HF noise or lose HF extension if it's tilted the other way.

Fortunately my new PX-3 can change arm height on the fly.

Koseltri's PS-X555ES biotracer can even change VTF on the fly with a LED readout! Fun and great sound there.

[hakaplan]

You should keep to the median or recommended tracking force or even a little higher. Too low can result in mistracking and vinyl damage.

[bobbyrae]

Originally Posted by hakaplan

You should keep to the median or recommended tracking force or even a little higher. Too low can result in mistracking and vinyl damage.

I never would have guessed that. Please tell me how. I would have thought that excessive weight would cause MORE wear on the vinyl. But not the other way around.

[jrtrent]

Originally Posted by bobbyrae

I never would have guessed that. Please tell me how. I would have thought that excessive weight would cause MORE wear on the vinyl. But not the other way around.

You're right that all else being equal, there is more wear with increased tracking force, but Hakaplan mentioned vinyl damage caused by mistracking, which is a different and, in my opinion, more destructive concern. It takes a certain amount of tracking force to allow the stylus to faithfully follow the wiggles in the groove, maintaining contact with the groove walls. When it can't, when the going gets too tough, the stylus will momentarily lose contact, then crash back into the groove wall with excessive force, damaging the vinyl, not just causing normal wear. A cleanly tracking cartridge will take a long time to wear out a record; a mistracking stylus can permanently damage a record in one play.