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Best way to warm up the sound

I have a MF 5.1 turntable and the 2.2 phono stage , also from MF with the stock Ortofon cartridge. I would like to warm up the sound and don't know what would be the best way to proceed .
My dealer has suggested replacing the cartridge with a Grado unit .
I have not been able to find much on phono stages and would prefer a tubed unit .
I am new to turntable mods and don't know how much change can be done with these methods . I am familiar with tube rolling in my amp and know how much change is possible there . I have an integrated amp and it does not have the ability to use a separate pre amp .
So , should I change the cartridge , possibly to a Grado ?
Or should I look for a tubed phono stage ?

Thank You
saki70
bill_k
880 posts
 
FYI, the Music Hall MMF-5.1 was originally provided with the Goldring 1012GX cartridge, but later the cartridge was changed to the Ortofon OEM Music Hall Magic 3.
schubert
7,386 posts
 
Try a cheap Grado Black to see if the "Grado Sound" does it for you. A grado Red did it for me as a swap for a came with Ortofon.
hesson11
237 posts
 
I know many others will think me a philistine, but in my experience, if you want a truly meaningful, significant degree of change in tonal balance, go straight to the transducers: cartridge and/or speakers. Pay attention to room acoustics and speaker setup, too. Everything else is little more than a minus sign in your checkbook.
-Bob
saki70 OP
907 posts
 
The cable from the TT to the phono stage is @ 46 inches long . It came from Music Hall .
I could easily go with a 12-14 inch cable for my present setup . The cables from the Phono stage to the integrated amp are copper by Tributaries .
The cartridge says Magic-3 in blue letters on the top and Ortofon on the front in black letters .
The CDP sounds as sweet as ever so I don't see a problem with the speaker or amp set up .
I have an email on the way to Music Hall concerning the load capacitance issue for the Ortofon cartridge .
This is the second reference concerning the transducers offering the biggest change ! hmmm .
saki70 OP
907 posts
 
Capacitance is 100-400 .
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