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Why do MM cartridges amplify more surface noise??

My concern in the thread is mainly moving magnet cartridges, not MC's I recently purchased an Ortofon 2M Blue MM cartridge which sounds very good with minor exceptions. Prior to the Ortofon, I briefy used an Audio Technica AT120E.

Unfortunately, the Ortofon seems to reproduce much more record surface noise than the AT120E which was remarkably quiet, except on very noisy LP's in my small collection. Without a doubt the Ortofon 2M Blue is a much better cartridge than the AT 120E

So what causes one MM cartridge to provide more LP surface noise than another?? Is it stylus design or materials, or the windings inside the cartridge body?? Is it heavier tracking force??

What MM cartridge in your experience reproduces the least amount of record surface noise??
sunnyjim
rodman99999
6,107 posts
 
Improperly set(positive) VTA/SRA will accentuate the high freqs and surface noise of phono playback. You might try tweaking there. VTF affects the VTA also, so- play with both. (http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/cartbasics.html)
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,440 posts
 
...sounds like a resonance peak to me. I've heard that Ortofon sound fine....there are better, but you can easily live with the Ortofon. I have a Winfield....took forever to break in and is very critical about setup. Works beautifully now....work on yours.
sunnyjim OP
927 posts
 
For the record, both the Ortofon Blue and AT 120 were recommended for the Rega RB301 tonearm. I was pleasantly surprised at the AT120's sound. Its main limitations were the highs, and the soundstage was nether wide nor deep. AT has a lot of MM's out there, especially ML440A which gets good reviews and is compatible with the Rega arms.

To Stringgreen, I will check it over, but will not purchase the tweeks suggestd by Rodman9999; the three devices would exceed the price of both cartridges. The GeoDisc may be old popular analog tech, and not as refined as some products, but it generally gets the job done with more than acceptable results
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,440 posts
 
The Foz is an important MUST for VPI owners, but not for Rega owners. I had a device for my Rega arm that permitted me to raise/lower the back end. I forgot where I got it, but I'm sure you can find it. I don't remember it being expensive, but it worked well and gave the arm the flexibility it needs. There is also a rear weight that hangs down instead of coming right off the rear end of the arm....this made a very big difference. The biggest difference was getting the table off of those rubber feet that mine had (maybe yours is different) Put 3 Cardas blocks, or 3 dominoes, or 3 tomato sauce cans under the table...1 in front, and 1 left, 1 right. You will thank me.
lohanimal
659 posts
 
Hi mate
Taking account of all the previous posts can I just add that all things being equal, it may well be that it is due to MM's having higher compliance meaning that they react to noise more. View it as u would suspension, and that softer suspension on a car reacts more to bumps in the road.
In my experience I find that there is little difference in noise from either MM or MC. You could be having set up issue. There is a bit of a one size fits all approach to arm cartridge arm compliance matching - whereas if you use a Moerch DP6 you can get proper compliance matching
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