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.
128x128terrible

@mijostyn I am assuming you are still not satisfied with the AS of my turntable. I'll now fix it once I get the new stylus in hand.

Also, thank you for the exhaustive list of cartridges for the 12A. I'll look into these.

@mijostyn Some of the carts like Paua won't work well with my phono stage Boulder 508. Dynavector TKR seems to be on the edge of compliance, don't know whether I should go for it.

However, the Lyra Kleos as I have been told would be a great pick for both the TT as well as Boulder 508. Just wanted your opinion on Hana Umami Red. Will probably pick one them. 

Why will the Boulder phono work well with the Kleos and not so well with the Paua?  Kleos makes 0.5mV at standard stylus velocity and Paua makes 0.4mV.  Not enough difference in their outputs to make a difference in practice.

@terrible , You would get Soundsmith's The Voice and use your MM input. The Voice is a great cartridge. Of the two you mention I would easily take the Kleos over the Hana. Between The Voice and the Kleos depends on the music. The Voice is going to be a better rocker but some might prefer the Kleos on classical and acoustic music. The Voice has a guarded cantilever, the Kleos sticks out in thin air, an easy target. The Voice has a much less expensive rebuild price and the manufacturer is easy to get to. The Voice is a high output Sussurro. Peter Ledermann told me the only reason it costs less is the market. People who buy high output cartridges are not prepared to spend as much as MC buyers. Peter insists that is the only reason.