Vinyl Newbie - So Many Questions!
New to these forums and new to vinyl, but longtime audiophile, so I feel comfortable saying that I know what I’m hearing but can’t figure out why.
It would probably help if I summarize my system to aid in troubleshooting:
Marantz TT 15S1
iFi Zen phono preamp
Naim Uniti Atom as streamer/preamp/dac
Conrad Johnson CAV-45 S2
Klipsch Cornwall IV
I’ll start with the easy one
1. I followed the setup instructions for the Marantz tt meticulously. Every time I start the motor, the belt squeaks and slips on the motor pulley before getting up to speed. It’s annoying and really cheapens the experience. Is this normal?
2. The sound quality ranges from very bad to very good, largely dependent on the record. I don’t have a large collection as I just started with vinyl, but many of these pressings sound absolutely terrible. Many sound distorted and compressed. Many have tons of clicks and pops. I double checked the settings on my phono preamp which is really just moving magnet. There aren’t a lot of settings. One for MM and three for MC. I connected the phono preamp directly to the Conrad Johnson instead of the analog input on the Naim and while it does sound “better”, it’s mostly the same.
I don’t have another cartridge or phono preamp to swap out and try to isolate the issue. Could it simply be that the phono preamp is defective? It seems that if the cartridge was defective it would just all sound bad. Could it be that my system is revealing enough that it’s showing the limitation of the iFI? I just think it would sound “good” all the time, but never really “great”. Could it be that all of these pressings are so incredibly crappy that I’m hearing just how bad they are?
The couple of “mainstream” records do sound pretty good. Namely Gregory Porter, Adele, Gary Clark Jr, Miles Davis, John Coltrane. But even a couple of those have inconsistently cut holes for the spindle (some of them bind), significant warps, and some off-center labels. The independent stuff is all over the map. A couple of the John Prine pressings sound very good, but have soooo many clicks and pops it’s ridiculous - even after cleaning. And one of them wouldn’t even go on the spindle because the hole was so small.
Anyway, I’m just perplexed and pretty annoyed. I’ve debated buying another turntable (with cartridge) and phono preamp just to see if there’s any change. Any suggestions? Is that my best course of action - to just buy another preamp and cartridge to troubleshoot?
BlueTac under the motor feet to stop it moving? Phono amp: DECWARE Zen Triode Vacuum Tube Phono Stage ~ model ZP3 SpinClean - 80% of the expensive units for little money. invaluable. |
Let’s forget about the quality or lack there of of new vinyl issues for the moment. You actually have a system there that ought to be capable of very nice better than mediocre phono reproduction. So it is worthwhile to analyze that system first before casting aspersions on the LPs themselves. Are you saying that the RCA’s between your IFI phono and the CJ amplifier are something called “monolith”?The capacitance of those cables does not matter much in this instance. The only thing that is important is the capacitance of the cables between tonearm and the phono inputs on your phono stage. The responder who said you’re ok for total capacitance is wrong because we don’t yet know the capacitance added by the ICs between cartridge and phono stage. I’d bet they add at least another 100pF, so your cartridge is likely seeing >200pF when it’s designed for 100pF. It is going to be a bit difficult to rectify this problem, if it is the reason why you are hearing ticks and pops so often. What happens is that the relatively high inductance of a moving magnet cartridge in combination with the load resistance and with the total capacitance results in a high frequency resonance. With MM cartridges you have to be careful to keep that high frequency resonance well above audibility. When you have too much capacitance, that high frequency resonance will move down in frequency into the audible range. This can result in exaggerated perception of ticks and pops. |
I have been there and done that many yrs ago. I came to understand that I had a weak link in the chain. A system is only as good as its weakest link. in your case, it is the IFI. You system is crying out for their equal so they don't get blamed. Your TT casts $2k, your Cartridge costs $1k and your phono preamp costs $200 or $0.2. See the imbalance? indeed price is NOT a complete indicator of quality. BUT its a good place to start and it is an indicator. The phono preamp is as important as the TT itself or any other component in the chain. It handles the most fragile of signals. Get a good Phono preamp that costs as least as much as the cartridge. |
@lewm - That’s very interesting. I am definitely hearing exaggerated sibilance in addition to the clicks and pops. I have to point out that a couple of records are virtually noise-free. It seems that when the recorded material is at a quieter passage, the sound is quite good, but when the dynamics increase there is distortion, almost as though the gain is too high on the preamp. For example, if I set the iFi at the next higher gain setting (high output MC), it’s a similar (albeit greatly exaggerated) type of effect. @noromance - I’m reluctant to use blutak because my table is sitting directly on an old walnut credenza (my deceased father’s old stereo cabinet), so I’m afraid to damage the finish. But maybe an isolation platform would mitigate that concern. That’s a very good idea. Decware is a great recommendation! I’ve read about the spin-clean but didn’t know if it was more trouble than it’s worth. I just ordered a stylus pressure gauge, so I’ll at least be able to check that. I did use a protractor to set the cartridge and I’m pretty certain that the tonearm height is correct, at least per the mfg recommendations. It sounds like, one way or another, I’m looking at the need to upgrade my phono preamp. In the meantime, I think I’ll just order an audiophile pressing of a known good recording and see how “good” I can get it to sound. |
First, get the possible bugs out. Then, if you still feel there’s a problem, think about a phono stage upgrade. But I still say you ought to be getting better results with what you have. IF the cause is an excessive capacitance load, the effect might be ameliorated by reducing load resistance. DB Systems make a kit that might help. By placing selected resistors in parallel with the fixed47K load, you can reduce R . I suggest trying 33K, for example, just to see what that does to sibilance, ticks, and pops. |
