It’s also possible that your new Grado needs some time to run in. Give it 50 hours to settle down and lose the edginess. When you say high pitched, do you mean strident, lot of treble in the tonal balance? A pitch change would be an increase in the frequencies of the notes caused by an increase in platter speed.
A pitch too High!
Recently, I damaged the V2 MM cartridge of Clearaudio Concept Wood turntable, so had it changed with a Grado Prestige Blue. The VTF for V2 is 2.2g while Grado blue stands at 1.5g. I took someone’s help to fix this. He even made azimuth adjustments and it sounded fine. But I soon realised that the sound had become thinner, voice being the primary indicator and just before the stylus landed on the record, it skipped back a bit then hit the record. Sometimes the tonearm would skip all the way out of the record, backwards. I called the guy back, and he felt the VTF should be fixed to around 2g to avoid the backward skip. He did so and that problem was licked and it seemed the voice thinning issue had also vanished. But last night, I put on the first pressing of Aretha Franklin Amazing Grace, and all along I found her pitch way higher, it was all too high pitched and uncomfortable. Seemed the bass had gone missing a little. On my Boulder 866, I could immediately hear the difference when the track was played through Roon. It was not as high pitched, thin as it sounded on analogue. I intend to call the guy again but wanted to know from experts here as to what the issue could be.
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Yes, I do mean more trebly, sharper than when compared to the same song playing from a digital source. Along with the voice, everything sounds a little sharper than the digital source. The guy who fixed the new cartridge just came back with the same response as yours, he thought I should let it run for 70 hours before assuming the cartridge is not compatible. I am running the record at its correct RPM so the pitch change should not occur. To my naked eye, the tonearm does not seem to be sloping down at all. |
Yeah, let it bed in a little. You might also be hearing more detail and transient speed from the vinyl than you’ve been getting from your digital source. It’s also possible that you’re simply hearing the limitations of a relatively inexpensive cartridge. Grados have always been a bit of an enigma, not being the greatest trackers. |
terrible The VTF for V2 is 2.2g while Grado blue stands at 1.5g ... he felt the VTF should be fixed to around 2g to avoid the backward skip. He did so and that problem was licked ...Something is amiss. There is just no way that a phono cartridge should require a VTF that far in excess of its manufacturer’s recommendation. Anyone who would suggest otherwise is not much of an expert, imo. I think your cartridge is ether defective or improperly installed. |
Pitch is an incorrect term unless there is no issue with speed. Set your anti-skating to zero and add tracking force, every new cartridge must be used with slightly higher tracking force during warm-up period. Your tonearm must be parallel to the record. Check the tracking force with digital scale to make sure your VTF is correct. Grado cartridge does not skip, you can check with a test record. |
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