That cartridge is pure CRAPOLA. Get a Grado Gold (MM) and listen to how sweet a P3 can sound.
Rega Planar 3 : Heavily upgraded yet produces a sound that I don't like
I have the Rega Planar 3 turntable for 30 years now. It had
an original everything including a 100$ nottingham analogue cartridge/stylus.
Sound was not bad but pretty basic....
A few years ago I started upgrading it. I did all the
upgrades together and the result is... not good. The sound is very accurate but it is too bright, there is almost no
Bass and drums have no attack whatsoever.
I can't eliminate where the problem is because all upgrades
are irreversible.
I know that the
Ortofon Rondo Red has a very bright sound but still...
Here is a list of the upgrades :
1. ISOkinetik ISOvert Rega Tonearm VTA Adjustment Kit
2. Cardas Litz purple phono cable
3. ISOkinetik Tonearm Low CG weight
https://www.analogueseduction.net/isokinetik-upgrades-and-parts/isokinetik-isoweight.html
4. Ortofon Rondo Red Cartridge/stylus
5 Linn Linto phono pre amp (an old but outstanding piece which has a cult following).
6. I use Rega Elicit Apmplifer
- ...
- 37 posts total
Problem solved ! Well... most of it ... I decided to start the Rondo Red setup from scratch. All I knew is that the dealer who sold it to me used a Baerwald protractor for Rega to set the Cartridge alignment. I read that a Stevenson protractor for Rega can be better. I used the Stevenson and bingo ! Now there is a nice Bass, drums have a decent attack and sound stage is much much better. I ended up spending 8 hours yesterday listening to my good old vinyls. The sound though, is still on the bright side. When Barbra Streisand sings "Memories", at timing 01:38, sound is too bright: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWoQW-b6Ph8 In a climax part of a symphony wind instruments sound a bit too bright. So at this point I finally end up enjoying my P3 TT but sound is a bit inferior to my Digital department (Linn Karik transport + Carry Exciter D/A) . Bare in mind that my Linn Linto phonostage is MC only so I'm afraid MM's are not an option for me. To resolve the brightness issue, I have to buy a better MC cartridge like the Rega Annia for 800$ or similar. Anybody here tried the Annia MC ? Any recommendations for a decent MC ? |
Unfortunately @triskadecaphobic, it is likely not your cartridge that needs to go, it is your Linn phonostage that needs to go. It has a non adjustable 150 ohm loading in parallel with a fairly useless 4.7nF capacitor (which does almost nothing except short our very high frequency noise). If you buy a different cartridge you could very well end up at exactly the same place. This is not an advocacy of extremephono products, but it is a good little article on cartridge loading. You can see how even for an MC cartridge, the frequency response can be affected by loading. This will vary cartridge to cartridge and I feel these graphs are more the extreme: http://www.extremephono.com/Loading.htm In the past I bought these pass-through RCA units with a little circuit board in them you could put parts on them. Can't remember where I got them, but that is an option. The Linn has fairly input impedance so these could be used as an adjunct. |
@triskadecaphobic, ran out of time to modify last post. You can obviously just wire something with an RCA female and male two if you are good with a soldering iron. We are only talking an additional resistor and capacitor between the two contacts. Not sure how many you are with a soldering iron. There are also these, but I would prefer to be able to run resistance and capacitance. It would give you more flexibility. http://www.akamaiaudio.it/turntable-parts/251-load-rca-plug-for-ph7-and-ph11.html |
- 37 posts total