MC Cartridge - Impedance 10-20 ohm and 0.3 mV or higher output - any suggestions?

[phoni]

I recommend the Audio Technica AT-ART20

AT-ART20

Based on cartridge technologies and know-how cultivated over our long history, and employing the best materials and advanced processing techniques, we created a magnetic core moving coil cartridge ...

www.audio-technica.com

Technically it's based on the AT-ART9XI, with a very good balance between musicality and transparency, an insider tip!

 

[AudioHR]

Hum ist most a grounding problem , clean all cables contacts. Grounding tonearm cable only to the preamp not the sut.works most time best.

An astute comment. As @skinnyfla was describing the hum issue at higher volumes I was wondering if there might be other gremlins besides a cartridge mismatch at work.

Proper grounding is important and it's worth exploring that to see if you can get better results.

… could do… or even just live with/get used to having to turn the volume up to 60% for really high volume and live with that really little and tolerable amount of hum… only an issue on 85+ dbs of listening volume anyways… so I might just leave things the way they are… system is dead quiet up to 75-80 db or 50% volume… just checking on alternatives…

… how do you calculate the amount of higher volume/db per 0,1 mV? Just being curious… been trying to figure out what 0,23 opposed to 0,21 for example would do in terms of gain…

Thanks for all the suggestions

You have some nice gear! Is the Consolidated SuT the lo output version at 1:20? If so I can't see it being a mismatch for the cartridge. Perhaps the complexities of your hook up; turntable - SUT- Phono stage- preamp and the cabling required is introducing some noise?? I might just start there: grounding differently, cleaning contacts, rerouting cables, possibly moving components slightly, shorter length of cable ? to see if you can clean things up.

 

[skinnyfla]

… thanks for all the great recommendations!!!

@AudioHR, thanks, yes, the SUT was built to match the cartridge and ones with similar specifications - so 10-20 ohm and low(ish) output… but it should handle up to 0,5 mV easily.

Anyhow - moved things around a bit and switched off the DAC (which sits next to the SUT) and the hum has almost completely vanished… can‘t hear it at the listening position anymore at all… and still only occurs when turning volume beyond 60% (which is 85- 90db + at my listening spot)… so basically irrelevant 90% of the time and when it comes up I can only hear it close by the speaker…

Still might look out for better matching Cartidges though, especially the Audio Technica and the Analog Relax sound interesting…

Cheers guys,

Christoph

 

[AudioHR]

… thanks for all the great recommendations!!!

@AudioHR, thanks, yes, the SUT was built to match the cartridge and ones with similar specifications - so 10-20 ohm and low(ish) output… but it should handle up to 0,5 mV easily.

Anyhow - moved things around a bit and switched off the DAC (which sits next to the SUT) and the hum has almost completely vanished… can‘t hear it at the listening position anymore at all… and still only occurs when turning volume beyond 60% (which is 85- 90db + at my listening spot)… so basically irrelevant 90% of the time and when it comes up I can only hear it close by the speaker…

Still might look out for better matching Cartidges though, especially the Audio Technica and the Analog Relax sound interesting…

Cheers guys,

Christoph

Good to hear! I would continue to experiment with things until you have no hum or as little as possible. Even though music might mask hum it likely is having some negative effects on the sound.

Do you have hum when you are playing digital?

 

[skinnyfla]

Good to hear! I would continue to experiment with things until you have no hum or as little as possible. Even though music might mask hum it likely is having some negative effects on the sound.

Do you have hum when you are playing digital?

… hah, it‘s done… hum is gone … still I think that the 0,21 mV is in the very quiet side for the 1:20 SUT with the 39db gain of the Ypsilon… I‘ll check some of the options mentioned in the next few months… see what happens

 

[skinnyfla]

... say, havin a SUT which is optimized for 10-20 ohms (my current Miyajima having 16 ohm I think) what would happen if a new cartridge would slip slightly out of that range, so say somewhere below 10 ohm... would that make a very audible difference to the sound or would it just be minimal in difference?

I have really not experimented too much with cartridges and there are so many parameters (has to be compatible with tonearm, needs to match SUT, mV needs to be right for amplification, etc) I really want to try a few different ones but then again I don`t want to spend thounsands on experimenting if technical parameters are so far out, that it definitely won`t sound good...

Any ideas and/or experience?

Thanks,

Chris

 

[mtemur]

... say, havin a SUT which is optimized for 10-20 ohms (my current Miyajima having 16 ohm I think) what would happen if a new cartridge would slip slightly out of that range, so say somewhere below 10 ohm... would that make a very audible difference to the sound or would it just be minimal in difference?

I have really not experimented too much with cartridges and there are so many parameters (has to be compatible with tonearm, needs to match SUT, mV needs to be right for amplification, etc) I really want to try a few different ones but then again I don`t want to spend thounsands on experimenting if technical parameters are so far out, that it definitely won`t sound good...

Any ideas and/or experience?

Thanks,

Chris

“Optimized for 10-20 ohms” doesn’t give any real information about the SUT. What is the reflected impedance?

If reflected impedance is 16 ohms and you connect a cartridge lower than that (ex. 10 ohms) result will be a slight increase on treble. Above sentence is a generalization because there are many other things play a role on SUT’s final sound.

BTW 10 ohms cartridge connected to 16 ohms SUT is perfectly normal.

 

[skinnyfla]

“Optimized for 10-20 ohms” doesn’t give any real information about the SUT. What is the reflected impedance?

If reflected impedance is 16 ohms and you connect a cartridge lower than that (ex. 10 ohms) result will be a slight increase on treble. Above sentence is a generalization because there are many other things play a role on SUT’s final sound.

BTW 10 ohms cartridge connected to 16 ohms SUT is perfectly normal.

... ah - thanks - from what I understood till now I would have thought the opposite, that going lower in ohm with the cart would increase the bass...

The SUT is optimized for carts with medium impedance, so 10-20 ohm and I had it built for my Miyajima, which has 16 ohm.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[Lynnot]

You also may consider a NS Kiseki Blue, these retail for arround 2000 EUR in Europe.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

or even a Purpleheart

 

[skinnyfla]

Thanks - Kiseki Blue and Purple Heart impedance is too high… best between 10 and 20 ohm…