Vinyl sounds a bit thin and slightly strident.


The analog side of my system looks like this:
Benz Micro Ebony H Cartridge(Broken in). VTF around 1.9g.
No Headshell weight.
VPI Scout/JMW-9 Signature Arm(Wired w/Nordost Valhalla)
Cardas Neutral Ref Phono Balanced.
Audio Research PH-2 Balanced Phono Pre
Cardas Neutral Reference IC's
Audio Research LS-7 Preamp w/Electro-Harmonix Tubes from ARC
Cardas Hexlink 5C
Mark Levinson No.331
Purist Audio Design Aqueous Bi-wire
B&W Nautilus 803S
I recently purchased a used Sony 9000ES SACD player and noticed I could listen for extended periods of time and I just kept wanting to play music because it is a great sounding player and very engaging and realized that I'm having a hard time getting as involved with my vinyl rig and I've concluded that the big contributing factors are a lack of bass weight, mid-bass bloom and the top end is a bit strident.
Has anyone else had a problem such as this? And what device(s) should I tweak or change in order to alleviate these sonic characteristics? I suspect my overhang may be off and a contributing factor due to just using the stock VPI protractor. I want to get a Wally Tractor soon.
Any thoughts?
n803nut

Showing 1 response by johnss

N803,
When one has a tonal balance as you described, the first thing to do is run a play back curve with the cart and arm you are using. place the RIAA playback LP on the table, and write down the output voltage of your preamp at each frequency. Doing anything before this step is purely guessing.

best