Help with cartridge output


Hi all,

So I recently sent my Pro-Ject 5.1SE off off the Sumiko American headquarters in Cali to have the tone-arm rewired after I botched installing a new cartridge and snapped one of the tone-arm wires. They said they'd also install the AudioTechnica 150mlx MM cartridge before they shipped it back. I had previously run a Sumiko Blue Point #2 MC cartridge

So, got it back the other day and spun the first disc this evening and discovered that I can get almost no sound or dynamics from the AT150mlx. I'm running the tt through an LSA Statement integrated which handled the Blue Point no problem at all - -full sound, lush dynamics, etc.

And now for all practical purposes there's little sound being generated; no bass, little volume. Every other parameter is the same; just the cartridge is different. I've made sure the tracking force is set correctly, the stylus is perpendicular, the arm is parallel to the platter, etc.

The LSA has a MM phono stage, yet it handled the 2.5mV Sumiko MC just fine. The AT150 is a 4 mV MM, so what gives?

Any help would be appreciated. I could switch back to the Sumiko, of course. Or sell everything, turntable and both cartridges, and go for something different. Or get out of vinyl altogether - which I don't want to do, of course.
128x128simao
Sounds like the two channels may be wired out of phase relative to each other. Try reversing the connections to the cartridge for one channel (i.e., interchange EITHER blue and white OR green and red) and see what happens. Of course, have everything turned off while you are changing the connections.

Regards,
-- Al
"The LSA has a MM phono stage, yet it handled the 2.5mV Sumiko MC just fine. The AT150 is a 4 mV MM, so what gives?"

That's perfectly normal. In most cases, a HOMC can be treated as a MM when connecting it to a phono preamp.

Along with Al's suggestion, you may want to check behind your amp. The phono preamp on your LSA is not typical in that you need to use the jumpers to connect the internal phono preamp to a line level input. Since you have been most likely using aux1 for phono, you may have accidentally plugged your TT directly into it. That would easily explain the type of sound you are getting.
Zd,

Please feel free to label me the village idiot. Your suggestion about the line level input was spot on. Seriously. How embarrassing. My only excuse is that I hadn't had the tt in a month and ahalf or so and had used the IC's to experiment with another set of IC's on my cd player.

Thank you for talking me off the ledge.