Problem with phono stage

I thought capacitance for cables didn't matter with a MM Cartridge , only MC.

@vinylvin ,  @emilin
Actually it matters quite a lot!


With a high output MM cartridge the inductance tends to be rather high. This in tandem with the capacitance of the tone arm interconnect cable connecting into the phono preamp results in a resonant peak. If the cable capacitance is high (as is often the case with many regular audio cables) the peak will be forced down in frequency, and can easily be somewhere at the top of the audio band.

This will make the system brighter and more susceptible to ticks and pops which tend to have a high frequency nature.


The suggestions about checking loading and overall gain were good ones. But we now know that the gain is 41dB which is fine. With regards to loading though, the cable capacitance plays right into that. Take a look at this page:http://www.hagtech.com/loading.html
Play with the numbers in the calculator, including the default. The link I provided earlier for the tonearm/phono cable from Blue Jeans has about 12pf/foot; you can see by dropping in 36pf for a 3 foot run that the resonance is pushed up higher, outside of the audio band. So that is where you start; after that you work on whatever loading is needed.


It is also a good idea to contact Lehmann: I think you will find that they confirm everything I've said on this thread so far.

@emilm 

if you can't get in contact with lehmann in germany, the ortofon folks in upstate new york are the lehmann importer here in the usa, they have a very knowledgeable tech who can also assist you... he was very helpful to me in the past

presuming you are in the usa

How in the world are pops and tics not normal in vinyl playback? It's part of the medium as it is a contact sport so to speak. You will never eliminate them entirely so why fret about it. If your hearing this sort of thing on a pristine brand new record, then yes, a possible issue. However, play any used records and you will hear some pops. Tics, clicks, and some surface noise. I don't get it really, it comes with the territory. I personally am not bothered by this, as long as the music sounds good. Lastly, try cleaning the records that are a bit noisy on a real record cleaner, one with a vacuum or better yet an ultrasonic cleaning. What you are also hearing is possibly static electricity. Try a carbon fiber audioquest brush and/or a zerostat gun. 

@audioguy

read what the op is saying -- his lp surface noise is much much more prominent with his switching out only the phono stage

which is why we are helping him think through why this may be the case

If I may piggyback on the OP thread, coincidentally I was about to open a discussion on the capacitance VS shielding subject.
Ralph is totally correct on the capacitance subject which is something I discovered on my rig with shielded cables, hum and other artifacts are present. On the other hand Chakster has a valid argument, with unshielded cables my TT makes pops on the right channel with no vinyl playing and a radio station gets induced on the left channel, funnily enough only with a Stanton DJ MM cart coupled, with the DL-301 mk2 MC don't get the radio station or the pops go figure, this is with no vinyl playing.
So where do we compromise? Apparently some shielded cables can achieve low capacitance too but these are rare.
Any of you with experience in this subject.
Trying to make sense of Bob Dylan at the moment, never been a big fan, good night guys.