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
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.