Sumiko

[nickvodkaj]

Hello, am new here and i need your help. Recently i upgrade my cartridge from an ortofon 2m silver to the sumiko amethyst. My problem is that must open up the volume knob to hear good the sound. My phono has 3mv output and the cartridge is 2.5 mv. With the ortofon i wasn't crank up the volume so much. My set up is project the classic turntable, project phono box , and an old 45 watts jvc integrated amp. Thanks

 

[Lynnot]

The Ortofon is a bit over twice the the output voltage of the Sumiko.
Obviously a lot louder.

 

[ChefBrunch]

the Sumiko amethyst is practically the output of a HI-MC cartridge....be nice if your phono had more gain settings. 45-50 maybe would be better. the basic project MM phono box is 40db gain.

gain matching does help a good bit with the sound, or you will just need to turn up the amp more, but its not the same IMO as having the gain in the phono section.

Don't invest anymore into cartridges without getting a much improved phono amplifier....The Phono amp is actually much more important than the cartridges....

this is not really high end gear, but this is a video I made not long ago showing what an Audio-technica Xp-3 basic Dj conical sounds like compared to the lo-mc Denon DL-110 on a fairly competent phono stage in the Pro-ject DS3B....I also have the Sumiko moonstone one step down from the amethyst, sounds fantastic on the Ds3B phono.

but just to show that a good phono stage can make a budget cartridge sing but a better cartridge does not really help on a basic phono stage.

. this is using my AT-lp140 turntable, I also have a pro-ject X8 you can see in my many vinyl uploads