2. analog
  3. 128442-18279

Ahhhh...breaking in a cartridge.

While I'm pretty sure most loudspeakers and components do have some break in period, I KNOW cartridges do break in because I've heard the diminishment of surface noise (and other stuff, which may be more subjective) over time. 

I'm breaking in a new Audio Technica ART9 cartridge.  I'm 5 hours in and my ear is either getting used to it or it's sounding better. :)  This is not much time, I know.  I am trying to listen to the same records (about 5 albums) over and over, of which I'm well familiar to see how things go.  If I had to sum up the break in thusfar in one statement I'd say things don't sound as tight and reserved. 

By the way, this cartridge is going to be killer.  It's tonal balance is superb.  Not one region of the spectrum is emphasized. 
128x128jbhiller
pops
2,275 posts
 
Stringreen said

You should recheck the setup parameters after the cartridge breaks in...the suspension will be in a different place.

Great point and often overlooked.  I checked and adjusted mine at 50 hours and just checked again yesterday at 200 hours.  No changes.

Enjoy the tunes while it breaks in!
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
@nandric 

My guess is that people accomodate to a particular sound and think that not their hearing but the cart changed. ''Self-deception'' is the name of this phenomena.

I think after a glass of white wine all my cartridges sounds better, Nikola. 
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 

Dear Chakster, The Germans are not known as people with any

sense for humor. Anyway that is what all Dutch think.  However they

 invented this saying: ''Wein,Weiber und Gesang'' ( wine, women and

music). I do believe that your carts sound better with wine but hope

for you that their suspension are in the same place as before.

According to me our dear stringreen drunk to much wine by his

last post (grin). There are those difficult to understand conditions.

Some of them are regarded as ''necessary'' the other as ''suficient''.

I am not sure which to apply to you and which to stringreen .

ninetynine's avatar
ninetynine
135 posts
 
Everyone who was mixing a song over a period of a few hours and listened to this a few days later, knows that our ear accustoms quite strong to a frequency response. I will not say that anyone is wrong here, but think about it.

Sorry for spelling, i am German :-)

Edit: And we hear not as good as every day. Temperature und humidity also brings some changes. To evaluate a cartridge it needs a longer time as a few hours.
alpha_gt
155 posts
 
It would be nice to have a counter on our 'tables so it could keep track of hours for us. I mounted my Sumiko over a year ago, but I couldn't begin to wager a guess of how many hours I've used it? Most likely less than I think. Does it sound better than when first mounted? I've changed cables, a new amp in my rig, even a new CD player, I honestly have no frame of reference to tell? But, it may sound better, and surely doesn't sound worse. It was a major step up from my previous cart, so I was pretty impressed when it was first mounted. But, what I have gained from this discussion is that I need to go back and refresh my setup. Now that the suspension has softened up a bit the tracking angle must have changed. Here's a question for you contributors, what is your favorite setup record? I've always worked by eye and ear, a setup disc could improve my accuracy. 

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