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Low volume on turntable??

Hi everyone, so I’m new to vinyl and have a lot to learn but I just hooked up a my first turn table, and with my preamp at maximum volume, and amp at full gain, it was still veryy quiet and had no depth/bass. The turntable is an old Denon DP-31L that I just installed a new cartridge in (AT-95E) --->Cary Audio AES SE-3 preamp---->McIntosh MC2125--->Klipsch RP-5’s. The system sounds magnificent running .wav vinyl rips with a Monarchy DIP upsampler--> Emotiva XDA-1 DAC in between my comp and the preamp, so there must be something wrong with either the unit, or how i hooked it up (basic built in RCA to preamp, with the integrated ground wire running to the Mcintosh chassis). On the plus side the ultra-quiet music has no hums, or background distortion whatsoever, even at full volume.

Any advice or thoughts would be much appreciated! Cheers
hockey4496
hockey4496 OP
104 posts
 
If it makes any difference I like classical (piano, cello, violen), classic rock (CCR, Clapton, pink Floyd, Beatles, Dave Mathews early stuff etc.) and anything with good vocals (rich raspy type voices like Adele). One thing I know they all have in common is a richness with the sound, if that makes sense? I hate nothing more music that hearing a song that should have a deep full sounding cello that has no feel/hollow.

Does that help narrow it down?
hockey4496 OP
104 posts
 
Thanks again to everyone helping me out!
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Hey, Hickey-That's great.  Using a good cartridge protractor will help your set-up.  Unless the new cart is the same as the old one, that setup is not likely to be close to optimum. Even if it was the same, fractions of a mm can make a big difference. 
marktomaras
544 posts
 
Sorry for suggesting those items out of your price range!   I am sure that you can get good suggestions on cartridges for any budget, I would take your time and perhaps start a new thread "best cartridge for $75" or something like that to lure more members in to then discussion. That and a meticulous install, and I think you're set!
hockey4496 OP
104 posts
 
i readjusted last night before bed with a printable protractor 😁 It was actually almost dead on by chance, must have been lucky. 

Any more thoughts on changing the AT95 that I just put in for another cartridge if I can stretch my budget to $80-100? its worth noting that this ghetto Sony phono stage I have rigged will hopefully be replaced in the near future with an Audible Illusions Modulus 3A, so at that point weakest link will be the Denon TT, but in the mean time if I can get a good enough cartridge for under $100 to minimally satisfy that new preamp that would be great. 
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