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Cartridge Break-In

Installed new cartridge and was just wondering about break-in techniques. Manufacturer recommends 50 hrs of playing time to presumably work in the suspension components. Obviously, playing a record would work best, but would simply placing the tonearm/cartridge on a non-spinning record and leaving it there also contribute to break-in? I'm thinking it really wouldn't be as effective since the suspension has only been displaced, but is not kept in motion the way playing a record would cause. Here's where it get strange, suppose I placed my turntable (a non-suspension design) on top of my subwoofer and played some bass oriented music thru my CD player? I could play with the volume level to control the amount of acoustic transfer from the sub to the turntable/arm/cartridge and thereby "excite" the cartridge into some sort of, hopefully controlled, motion. Alternatively, I could place the turntable directly in front of my woofers and play music at a high volume from a digital source. Would any of these "techniques" even roughly accomplish what playing a record does as far as cartridge break-in goes?

Just speculating on a hypothesis.
128x128onhwy61

Showing 3 responses by dougdeacon

dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
Interesting, I never heard from a Cartridge, which needs no break in. I ordered a Zyx UNIverse, which will arrive in a few days.
Thomas,
Please let us know how it goes. Both about break in and about your new cartridge in general.
Doug
dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
The Cardas LP helped shorten the most torturous period of a friend's Shelter 901, which I broke in for him. Without it I couldn't have stayed in the house when it was new.

The ZYX Airy 2 we reviewed took at least 75 hours and the Airy 3 took well over 100. We didn't use the Cardas record because we felt a responsibility to report on the sound from the get-go.

OTOH, our UNIverse needed no break in at all. I once thought that the maker might have broken it in by listening himself. Ours is serial # 1 so that would have made sense. But other UNIverse owners have also reported few if any changes in their copies.

In the end it depends on the cartridge, and IMO it is more than just the ears or brain of the listener. It isn't likely we're fooling ourselves when we hear one cartridge change enormously while the next doesn't change at all. In one extreme case (Airy 3) we changed impedance 8 times in the first 60 hours. It was like trying to hog-tie a wild cat. Every time I thought I had it tied down it twisted loose again.

If you can enjoy the sound then listen to music. If you can't, give it some hours on those Cardas locked grooves.
dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
Nsgarch ,

Thank you for that explanation. (Nods head sagely, giving a plausible imitation of complete understanding.) Even your digressions were informative.

My limited experience with three MC gain stages and a half dozen MC's largely confirms your >= 25x guideline. In only one case did a lower value (about 19x) "seem" best, but even then the combination was not happy, probably due to tonearm/cartridge issues. That cartridge obeyed the 25x rule when used on a more compatible arm.

My present setup works best at about 56x (225 ohm input impedance/4 ohm cartridge). 25x is too low. The highest my MC inputs can go is 375x (1500 ohms) and that is clearly too high. The 47k of a MM input would be far too high, aside from the inadequate gain.

Obviously your guideline and explanation assume the cartridge is driving a voltage gain device. If a stepup transformer is the first thing in the circuit, the reflected impedance seen by the cartridge will need to be well below 25x.
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