TasiePatto Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 Hello all, I'm Justin I've just joined and have until now put this post in the wrong place , silly noob. I've been a hifi enthusiast all my life. My equipment is modest and I'm re uniting myself with vinyl after 3o years . I've recently bought a project 6 Perspex with ortofon 2m black cartridge I figured reasonable place to start, plugged into my musical fedelity A1008 amp with built in phono preamp and good well shielded leads . After lots of reading set it up to best of my ability, I believe it's all done right lots of care taken and yes there is distortion, lows sound good high's sound good great imaging mids are distorted almost fuzzy, disappointed. I've done all the obvious things, realignment etc, leads . Rest of hifi is good, lots of new and old record testing. I'm stumped, any help would be much appreciated. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrews_melb Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 Hi mate nice TT and cart. what did you use for alignment? What about vtf? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussievintage Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 Not sure about what you are describing. Would be good to hear it. Is the turntable and cartridge (and stylus) new or secondhand, and if secondhand, what condition? Have you ever used the phono input on your amp before Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas HiFi Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 The 2M black is a great cart... but it is somewhat finnicky about set up. Use digital stylus scales and check tracking weight is around 1.6g-1.7g. Ensure your phono stage is set to MM NOT MC. Double triple check cartridge alignment is correct (use a cartridge alignment protractor to do so). If you still have problems try to borrow an external phono pre-amp and check that your inbuilt phono isn't the cause (it suggests 2.5mv sensitivity and the 2M Black is 5mv...... however, the specs for your amp mention 24db headroom which should easily cope with 5mv no problems). Let us know how it goes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TasiePatto Posted September 10, 2019 Author Share Posted September 10, 2019 Thanks for replying guys. I've done the setup fairly good triple checked everything played with vtf now set to 1.7. I'm starting to think about capacitance, my leads are heavily shielded and maybe the overall pf is getting to high. Oh I haven't used the phono input before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyr Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 1 hour ago, TasiePatto said: Thanks for replying guys. I've done the setup fairly good triple checked everything played with vtf now set to 1.7. You still may have not got VTF, bias and basic cart positioning wrong (even if VTF is right). 1 hour ago, TasiePatto said: I'm starting to think about capacitance, my leads are heavily shielded and maybe the overall pf is getting to high. I doubt that is the cause of the issues you describe. 1 hour ago, TasiePatto said: Oh I haven't used the phono input before. So what have you chosen - MM or MC? Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TasiePatto Posted September 11, 2019 Author Share Posted September 11, 2019 Ok I'll take a few steps back. The turntable and cart is new, used the protractor that came with turntable double check, adjusted tone arm so parallel to record, adjusted cart so level, set anti skate to 1.5-1.9 , set vtf to 1.7, leveled platter then went through it all again, selected MM on phono in then plugged in some non insulated RCA and ground, the everything I played had hum the 50-60 hz type. Then went through the process of getting the best insulated and grounded at one end RCA's no hum. At first I didn't notice the distortion but my wife in next room did of course I ignored this, bought some new very well recorded LPs and then started to zone in on the distortion the more I listened the worse it got. So I went through the setup again the double checked, scratched my head for a bit, then out of curiosity looked into the impedance, read a post on this forum from 4 or 5 years back by someone something math he went by and he spoke of some very interesting stuff about capacitance with lots of maths to back it up in which most went over my head. Now I'm here speaking to you fine people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aussievintage Posted September 11, 2019 Share Posted September 11, 2019 So, have you ever used the phono input successfully with any other turntable cartridges? Maybe there is a problem with your inbuilt phono preamp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VanArn Posted September 11, 2019 Share Posted September 11, 2019 (edited) Is the problem actually mains hum or are you hearing tracking problems all the way through the vinyl records ? The latter could be caused by incorrect settings of VTF etc., or faulty arm bearings, a damaged or dirty stylus. The MM/MC setting has been already checked. If it is a hum problem then the RCA interconnection leads should be tested for continuity and make sure that an earth cable is fitted between the turntable and the amplifier. Also check that the cable clips at the rear of the Ortofon pickup cartridge are firmly fixed and fitted to the correct pins.. The turntable should not be sitting on top of an amplifier as the mains transformer can radiate a high EMI field into the pickup wiring if it is too close to it. Impedance loading is not a problem that will cause hum or distortion. Edited September 11, 2019 by VanArn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrews_melb Posted September 11, 2019 Share Posted September 11, 2019 Can you try putting the ground wire somewhere else on the amp? Another screw or something. No idea if this would work. other option, go out and buy a cheap-ish external phono stage and try that into the normal rca inputs on the amp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abelb Posted September 14, 2019 Share Posted September 14, 2019 Chining in late here, how did you go with the suggestions above? Is the distortion on both channels or more to one side? Make sure the turntable is completely level and also get a stylus brush. The foggy distorted midrange is a common symptom of having some fluff / grime build up on the stylus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TasiePatto Posted September 14, 2019 Author Share Posted September 14, 2019 Getting better. As as Douglas hifi stated the cart is finicky to set up so once again I went through it again. Noticed the tonearm was 1 to 2 mm out of level lifted it up to suit a 200 gram record not the the lighter one in previous setup, but when adjusting the cart level noticed my little level was infact not so good and had to rotate the tonearm clockwise a bit, enough to consider it a noticeable adjustment thinking to myself there must be a more accurate way of doing this, done all the other calibrations cleaned the styles which it seems to need cleaning often even though all records are cleaned before playing, and BAM huge sound improvement. So thanks guys for keeping me on the straight and narrow and not going of on a silly tangent. But there is still improvement to be made, so how do I get these adjustments precise?, maybe a calibration tool? Any how looking forward to more suggestions for tweaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crtexcnndrm99 Posted September 14, 2019 Share Posted September 14, 2019 I’m curious what you used for levelling the tonearm? Was it one of those minuscule ones that go on the headshell? good to hear of the improvement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TasiePatto Posted September 15, 2019 Author Share Posted September 15, 2019 No nothing that good just the level for platter and poorly made at that. Correct me if I'm wrong but making the cartridge parallel to platter is the right thing to do, if so is there an alignment tool for this? Off course I'm being rhetorical, Which is the best way to do the adjustment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gryffles Posted September 15, 2019 Share Posted September 15, 2019 Do you have one of these? If not get one and you can check VTA & Azimuth with it. https://www.amazon.com/VTA-Azimuth-Gauge-Alignment-Block/dp/B0771Z3XMH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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