@avanti1960 I doubt it. The cartridge was at over 50hrs by time I got the 20/20. If it did break in some more, it would be a smaller change. I had this cartridge with the KC Vibe MkII and the system never sounded as dull, dry, muddy, congested and too busy, struggling with instrument separation and not at all engaging, as it did with 20/20 when I just got it. The 200ohm setting just didn’t sound right at all. So I set it at 100ohms and it kind of relaxed a bit so I left it there.
I was playing records all day every day while I was working (not listening for the most part, I have a Little Fwend that takes care of lifting the arm at end of each side so I don’t need to hear the record end to get to it to lift the arm).
Few days in I started noticing the improvement and before I made the switch to 200ohms and posted here the 20/20 was sounding amazing. So pretty sure it broke in.
What a difference a setting makes.
I recently got a new turntable (Feikert,) Arm (Origin Live,) and cartridge Hana ML.) A whole new analog setup. I talked myself into thinking the sound was good, although I had doubts when I compared the SQ with the sound I was getting from the digital side. It was really great on some records (the equal of digital,) but the majority of discs were mediocre. Finally, I decided that with such good equipment I should be doing better. So, I contacted my salesman/advisor for help. He had initially recommended that I set the preamp with the gain at 58 and the load at 100 (evidently the standard for the Hana cartridge.) I kept it on that setting for several weeks.
When I called him he suggested that I increase the load to 200.
All of a sudden everything opened up! Almost everything I played had a presence it lacked before. The proverbial veil was lifted. Records really did sound wonderful!
I can’t help but think, that if I hadn’t had enough with the old sound I would be blissfully ignorant of what my set was capable.
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- 30 posts total
- 30 posts total