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What should I do?

Recently, at a brick and mortar audio dealer, I listened to a high-end moving coil cartridge.  It sounded really good, and I was impressed.  The retail for this cartridge was more then I wanted to spend ($4500), but to make a long story short, the dealer offered me a rare deal, ($2500+tax) brand new, so I bought it.  Got it home, and carefully installed it last night.  I listened to it for about 2.5 hours.  It is really good, but I don't think (at this point), that it's that much better then my old cartridge (at least, not yet).
Ok, so this morning I played around with the loading.  Better, but still I'm not happy.  Now, with only about 5 hours on this new Cartridge, I realize that it's not broken in yet.  I'm looking for input as to your thoughts on how I should proceed.
1.  Are cartridges purchased from high-end dealers returnable (I don't want to create any bad feelings with this dealer, since he gave me such a good price)?
2.  I was told 50 hours of break-in time for this Cartridge.  Should I wait the break-in period to make any decisions?
Any thoughts on how you think I should proceed are appreciated! 


louisl
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Cartridges are like ski boots. Once you use em you own em. Unless it is a demo unit it will not be returnable. Whether or not it sounds better in a few hours depends. I have a Clearaudio cartridge that out of the box was very bright. I had to program a special curve for it. But it tracked wonderfully and had great separation. Eventually it started sounding dull. I set the curve back to flat, perfect. I can't tell you how many hours it took. I would say a month of steady listening.
Most important is set up. Unless you are using a test record it is unlikely that you are getting it optimal. I recommend the HiFi News Test record. Get your anti skate set right and your resonance frequency down around 8-10 Hz and I promise it will sound better. 
You got a great deal so it is unlikely that you will find a $2500.00 cartridge that is better. I do not know of any bad $4500 cartridges although you will never see me buying a Decca. 
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
I’m guessing the dealer was using different components than what you run at home but did you ask what gain and loading settings he was using? If the cart doesn’t sound nearly as good as at the dealer I suspect it was one or combo of:

1. The components (primarily table/arm/phono pre/SUT) were a better match than yours;
2. You don’t have gain and loading dialed in optimally;
3. The cart isn’t set up ideally in terms of overhang, VTA, VTF, etc.



jl35
3,977 posts
 
you will never get agreement here about break-in, but exact setup is crucial...but since they say 50 hours and it's Saturday afternoon, play a lot of records and give the dealer a call...

dweller's avatar
dweller
3,781 posts
 
Take it back to dealer and have them reinstall in the original rig. If it sounds great again, you'll know your system is the problem.
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
And bring your own old cartridge to the dealer to compare it with new one.

If you're not happy with the sound and can't solve the issue at home what is the reason to pay $2500 for this new toy? 
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