Woofer pumping WHY??


Hello All, I have an older REL B2 series. I love this sub. I recently received a new Project Xtension 10 with Clear Audio Maestro Ebony v2. After a couple days I noticed bad woofer pumping on several records I like to listen too. When I brought it up to Needle Doctor they told me it was my records and said it worked fine in there store. Now my REL is blown! I am so upset at myself for not taking this matter more seriously. Now I am purchasing a KAB rumble filter because I am not going through this again. Is this a cartridge mismatch?? Because on my REGA with Dynavector 10X5 It did not do this woofer pumping nearly as bad. AND I do remember putting a DENON DL103 on my RB301 and this same woofer crazy action occurred!! Immediately took it off that arm. I just spent $4100 for this Xtension10/CA Maestro and now I am scratching my head. Hmmmm.
128x128mattmiller
A cartridge arm mismatch will cause that problem. The rule of thumb is low compliance cartridge, high mass arm and high compliance cartridge, low mass arm. You should get a test record like the Shure test record TTR 115 that can be gotten on Ebay for about $15.00. The ideal resonant should be from 8 to 12 HZ. Years ago I was blowing woofers until I corrected the problem and replaced my heavy arm with a lighter one.
You are getting rumble. You need a phono preamp with rumble filter. You can damage speakers without it. Too much acoustic feedback.....PT
Matt, when you play the records you referred to with the sub disconnected, do you see any visible indications of woofer pumping in the main speakers?

If not, it would seem likely that what is exciting the arm/cartridge resonance is not minor record warps, as is sometimes the case, but rather acoustic feedback from the sub. In which case some experimentation with sub placement may be in order. And possibly also with isolation provisions under the turntable, despite the statements in its literature about "perfect decoupling through magnetic feet" and a "mass loaded magnetic floating subchassis."

Also, while chances are it is unrelated to the problem (although it is conceivable to me that it might be), where are you connecting the ground (black) wire of the sub's Speakon cable? And does the sub have a 3-prong power plug? If it does, you should probably NOT be connecting the black wire of the Neutrik cable to a negative output terminal of the amp. And come to think of it, given the amp's "quad balanced" + autoformers design I'm not sure that the black wire should be connected to a negative output terminal even if the sub has a 2-prong power plug.

Sorry to hear, btw, that the sub may be damaged. But perhaps if the pumping issue is resolved it will no longer scrape.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al
The tonearm mass is a low 8.5 grams ,the cartridge has a compliance of 15 (on the low side). That combination looks like a mismatch to me. You can try a headshell weight to add some mass to the arm and see if that improves the problem.
Get a KAB rumble filter for 189 and problem is solved. I had the same problem with my Scout turntable, I tried relocating the turntable to various locations and using all kinds of platforms under the turntable and nothing helped. Put the rumble filter on the tape loop and use it when playing records. All the oscillating speaker problems will go away. I hear no difference with the rumble filter in and out of the system. The only thing that changes is the woofer pumping: none with it on and all with it off.