Why are my woofers pumping?


The other day, with sunlight direct from the side, I noticed that the woofers in my speakers are pumping in and out, much more than I was aware of, when the stylus is in the groove, even between tracks (no music).  I can see it, even if I don’t hear it. Why does it happen? The woofers behave normally (no pumping) with digital music, and when the stylus it lifted from the groove, so it is not the speakers, amps, preamp or phono stage. 

I’ve read that the typical reason for woofer pumping is that the cartridge / arm resonance is too low.  I tested, with my Hifi News test record, and yes, the lateral test puts the resonance at 7 hz or so – too low (but I’ve seen some doubts about the results from that test record).  It is strange, since the combo I use – Lyra Atlas cartridge and  SME V arm (on a Hanss T-30 player) is supposed to work well. I tried to strip my arm of extras, cleaned the damping trough, etc – but it did not help much.

Anyone has an idea, why it happens, or what to do about it?  


Ag insider logo xs@2xo_holter
Some more testing. The woofer pumping problem is still there, maybe a bit reduced, but not fully solved (sorry for too general statements above - I thought it was solved). It is very dependent on the record - some LPs have more, some have less. I am investigating whether a filter could be an idea, using a laptop and a sound card to see what goes on in the low hz region (through the program Audacity).
vpi, and others - two camps in this thread, "fix the cause" or "fix the problem" - if I want to fix the cause, and change the tonearm, keeping the Atlas, although I dont have the financing to do it now - what would be a good match, with a resonance around 10 hz? That sounds good with the cart?
One more test. Changing the connectors from the Aesthetix Io phono stage to the Einstein preamp from balanced to single-ended. Result; much less woofing with single-ended. But much poorer sound too! More flat, congested, less involving. Even when I turn the volume up, to get the equivalent decibel level (which I have to do, for the single-ended connection), there is less "here-ness" to the music. I have a semi-balanced phono stage - balanced from the second amplification section through the output. The balanced outputs sound way better than the SE / RCA outputs. Conclusion: a single ended filter like the KAB probably will not work for me. Running the phono signal single ended, or through a single ended tape loop, will degrade it.
Cables used for testing: 1) balanced - JPS Superconductor 3 (very good xlr cable); 2) single ended - Kimber KCAG (very good in some applications but not here).

Status: I enjoy my SME V / Atlas combo, even with some woofer pumping and - maybe - possible distortion. Yesterday I tested Kula Shaker: K2, on LP vs Tidal digital. Result: digital = no clear woofing (as before), but poorer sound. Distortion - some, very evident in loud music passages, from both sources, but overall more "grunge" in the digital. The contest was a bit more even, than I remember - analog does not totally outcompete digital, but still, no doubt. I should probably consider a better DAC. But if it has real "grunt" (like the Aesthetix Io) maybe this includes some woofer pumping ;-  If you cut low frequency it easily hurts ambience, overtones, etc. I think this is why Pink Floyd's Echoes has woofer pumping. Everything down below is recorded. The vinyl is taxed to the maximum. You can hear this deeper tonality also in the high frequencies (Richard Wright playing light organ touches). With today's resolving systems, we are able to reproduce such pioneer enginering efforts and should be grateful for it.