So the tonearm is indeed at the correct height and everything is hooked up. There is a major improvement already. I played around with some of the settings and so far I've run into some interesting findings...
1. I tend to like the sound with the mono switch on. Regardless of the record being stereo or mono.
2. The MC section of the pre amp has 50db gain or 60db. I'm having trouble finding a balance. Recommendation from dynavector is 50db with 1000h ohmz load. So that's where I started. It seemed fine. And playing with the knob up or down didn't improve the sound, and actually degraded in most cases. Then I decided to switch to 60db gain and see what I get. What a difference! It seemed great when I turned it down to around 150-300 ohmz. But in some of the high lyric sections I got some breaking up and crackling. So it seems Im between ok sound at 50db with the impedence all the way up, or pretty good sound at 60db with it cranked all the way down and the occasional crackle pop. What do you guys make of that?
Anyway thanks to all for your input and suggestions. It is playing much better overall regardless of which setting I put it on. And I no longer feel like I made a terrible mistake buying the Sota! I'm going to be spending a lot of time surfing these pages learning as much as I can through my hifi journey. Thank you all agian.
1. I tend to like the sound with the mono switch on. Regardless of the record being stereo or mono.
2. The MC section of the pre amp has 50db gain or 60db. I'm having trouble finding a balance. Recommendation from dynavector is 50db with 1000h ohmz load. So that's where I started. It seemed fine. And playing with the knob up or down didn't improve the sound, and actually degraded in most cases. Then I decided to switch to 60db gain and see what I get. What a difference! It seemed great when I turned it down to around 150-300 ohmz. But in some of the high lyric sections I got some breaking up and crackling. So it seems Im between ok sound at 50db with the impedence all the way up, or pretty good sound at 60db with it cranked all the way down and the occasional crackle pop. What do you guys make of that?
Anyway thanks to all for your input and suggestions. It is playing much better overall regardless of which setting I put it on. And I no longer feel like I made a terrible mistake buying the Sota! I'm going to be spending a lot of time surfing these pages learning as much as I can through my hifi journey. Thank you all agian.