New RCA cables. Sound is horrible.

Thomas_AA said:
Cable error that damaged something in amp or cartridge. Probably.
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I think he said he tried a different amp (receiver) with same results. I don't know if he tested the cartridge, nor continuity from its pins all the way to the RCA jacks. If not, he should.

His claim that his tape deck sounds 100x better than his turntable is a bit of a red flag.
 
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Since you got the turntable have you replaced the cartridge? I got one used Dual that unknown to me had some changes in the wiring. I replaced the cartridge and the sound was terrible. I had followed the wiring in the cartridge instructions. I looked at the items I received with the turntable. One was a drawing of the cartridge wiring. It did not match the instructions. I switched the wiring to match the hand drawn drawing and it worked nicely. To work I am sure some other downstream wiring also had to be modified for this to work. So have you checked all of the wiring from cartridge to the jack were it plugs into the system. Not a high chance of this but one more thing to eliminate.
 
Having both channels with the same bad sound (as is implied) points to a general cause I’d guess.
 
You can get a cheap component tester which also does LCR from ebay for like 10 bucks and at least the one I have works a charm.

From your description this does sound like a capacitance related issue, but with more drastic difference afterwards than a slightly different cable would make. It's possible you messed something up when soldering, adding lots of capacitance (this is possible with bad or messy solder joints) or that the cable is faux and in fact has way higher capacitance than listed. If could check with a meter, that would help you rule it out.
 
muovimies said:
You can get a cheap component tester which also does LCR from ebay for like 10 bucks and at least the one I have works a charm.

From your description this does sound like a capacitance related issue, but with more drastic difference afterwards than a slightly different cable would make. It's possible you messed something up when soldering, adding lots of capacitance (this is possible with bad or messy solder joints) or that the cable is faux and in fact has way higher capacitance than listed. If could check with a meter, that would help you rule it out.
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I will see if my multi meter can do LCR. I am also going to solder direct to the tone arms cables directly wires rather than the bracket to see if that helps. Nothing to loose at this point.

The cartridge is brand new (used for a month or so). I do not think it is damaged from flipping the TT over and over again. I took good care of not banging the arm around or placing any pressure on it at all.

I guess we will see what direction soldering does and report back. Thanks for all the help
 
*Plenty* to lose! If you screw up the wiring going into the tone arm, your project gets a LOT bigger! That, and a terminal strip *CANNOT* cause this!

(For grins and giggles, what happens if you only plug one channel into the amp, and leave the other disconnected?)
 
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It was suggested earlier that you do a continuity test on the wires from the cartridge to the RCA ends.
Have you done that?
 
I'm thinking that I'd start by getting a different cartridge on there and comparing.....something is just telling me that there has been an event of unknown sorts with the cartridge......or, just re-solder the old, original RCA cables back on and if the sound is great again maybe I learn to live with ugly until I can find pretty that works!!!
 
This thread is getting long so I thought I would summarize the OP actions and symptoms in a short summary. I hope this helps.

Screenshot 2026-01-27 095243.jpg

By the way, in the photo of the turntable headshell and cartridge, it appears that the headshell is not parallel to the turntable platter. I can't tell if this is because of your camera angle or if it really exists. Please verify. (EDIT: If I rotate the photo 4.5 degrees, then the headshell seems to be perpendicular to the edge of the platter.)

One other thought is that maybe while soldering in the new RCA cables you created a static discharge on the wires going to the tonearm and cartridge.
Out of precaution, did you remove the headshell/cartridge from the tonearm before unsoldering/soldering the RCA cables from the terminal strip to prevent any static discharge damage?

EDIT: Photo rotated.
Screenshot 2026-01-27 102536.jpg
 
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Bingy said:
Hooked up my daughters cheap technics and it wasn’t much better. But she has an old cartridge. But here is the kicker. I have two of the same receivers and both are sounding the same. It has to be the cable.
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Two different turntables presumably with different cables and two different cartridges into two different receivers and in all cases the outcome was the same.

The math isn't working here.
 
Sure would be a good idea to test the coils of the cartridge, as has been suggested previously. Based on the summary by @dankik, this has not been done.
 
The OP stated nothing has changed except for the RCA wires. He also stated he cut his original wires so they could not be put back. Also stated the RCA’s were purchased on EBay.
eBay is well known for fake items. IMHO, the likely culprit is a fake set of RCA’s.
The only way to truly know is to wire up a set of quality RCA’s. If at that point you still get the poor performance, then something else was done during the initial setup. Whatever that is, most likely you didn’t realize what was done. At that point it will become a long and difficult process to determine the problem.
I wish you luck.
 
If you want to experiment with turntable cables, RCA jacks on the back of the turntable are a must. Then buy quality turntable cables complete with RCA connectors from an authorized dealer. :thumbsup:
 
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Did you by any chance set the RIAA load to MC, a much lower load than 47k will make a MM sound like porridge and low in level.
A high Capacitance by wrong cable choice can give a peak 8-15k and a possible reduction before the peak, but that will not cause a cartridge to sound muffled and terrible
 
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Sleiven said:
Did you by any chance set the RIAA load to MC, a much lower load than 47k will make a MM sound like porridge and low in level.
A high Capacitance by wrong cable choice can give a peak 8-15k and a possible reduction before the peak, but that will not cause a cartridge to sound muffled and terrible
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The Sony 6055 only has MM capacity and no adjustable loading.
 
Make sure the contacts on the headshell and the tonearm are not oxidized. Clean them well with Deoxit or isopropyl alcohol.
 
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