I agree that MC cartridges do you need time to wake up. They need time to wake up if they are brand new or have very low hours on them, and they need time to wake up if they have been sitting around and not used for several weeks or more. I am not sure that this is not also true of moving magnet and moving iron cartridges, but I haven’t made the observation on the latter types.
Do MC's Need Time To Wake Up?
I know this is gonna sound silly, but what the heck. Has anyone here ever noticed the output level of an MC cartridge increase some time after installation? I've had this feeling before with several carts, but the differences always seemed very small. So I chose to discard it as some sort of psychological adjustment on my part. As if I needed to wake up to the change of sound.
But today I took delivery of a Jan Allaerts MC-1 cartridge. A previously owned sample, but coming from a reliable source and not having been used for quite some time. This MC-1 (the basic ECO version) reportedly has ca. 0.5 mV output, but at first play it required the same volume level as the 0.25 mV Entré EC-30 it replaced. But after playing a few sides I had to turn down the volume several steps to maintain the same sound pressure. This time there's no way I'm fooling myself. Or am I?
Does this sound familiar or should I just put it in the X-files?
But today I took delivery of a Jan Allaerts MC-1 cartridge. A previously owned sample, but coming from a reliable source and not having been used for quite some time. This MC-1 (the basic ECO version) reportedly has ca. 0.5 mV output, but at first play it required the same volume level as the 0.25 mV Entré EC-30 it replaced. But after playing a few sides I had to turn down the volume several steps to maintain the same sound pressure. This time there's no way I'm fooling myself. Or am I?
Does this sound familiar or should I just put it in the X-files?