Threshold FET 10/e cartridge amp questions

Hi Etnier,

I owned a FET 10 for several years, then sold it to a friend who still has it in his system. Mine was not the "/e".

I've heard of others who's Threshold phono stages became noisy as they got older but mine was/is dead silent. So I expect it can be repaired easily. I don't have their names but there is a dealer in Reno who sells Pass and Threshold products so you might ask there. Also I've read of a tech who repairs and/or modifies Threshold electronics, possibly someone who worked for Threshold. Try googling.

I don't know the output of your shelter but you should think of the gain settings as high and low, not necessarily MM and MC. As I remember they are 60 and 40 dB which should work with most cartridges, particularly when paired with a line stage which will boost the signal a little more.

I never compared mine against the Klyne or Vendetta which Lew mentioned but I found mine very musical and with no significant sonic criticisms.

Etnier, From your more detailed description of how you perceive the sound of your Threshold, I think of two things: (1) The deficiencies you've assigned to the Threshold may well be due to other components in the chain, and/or (2) MM cartridges most definitely ARE sensitive to capacitative loading, moreso than MC cartridges, and you may want to look at that IF you are running an MM cartridge. But on the other hand, I thought the Shelter was an MC, and I am too lazy to look it up. Most MCs would not be adequately served by the 40db gain setting and would indeed not drive the phono stage sufficiently to drive the linestage comfortably. Could be you just need to use the 60db gain setting, as Pryso mentions. If that does not help, you might do well to have the Threshold checked out by a competent tech, also per Pryso's suggestion. Could be that power supply electrolytic capacitors are leaky, after 30 years, especially if the unit was not in use that whole time.

I do apologize to all: I mis-stated things*. I have an MM cart (Shelter 501II) and have the Threshold phono pre set for maximum gain. As to "noise": it's hum, really. There's no noise issue.

If anyone knows the best capacitance setting for a cart like the Shelter, it would be a big help

* At the risk of rationalizing/over-dramatizing things I'm 4 months out from a stroke and still have a lot to learn about how I can get things screwed up: I'm not used to it.

Best bet is to go on-line, either to the Shelter website if they have one or to Vinyl Engine, and find out the recommended capacitance for the load resistance you are probably running (47K). However, you've stated that capacitance is not adjustable for the Threshold, so it will be painful to change it. You could do so by soldering the capacitors in parallel with the input, but you probably would not want to do so.

You can figure that there is about 100pF minimum to ~200pF load capacitance already; that's typical for the phono cable capacitance plus the capacitance presented by the input transistor. Unless the Shelter needs much more, e.g., 400pF or more at 47K ohms, I would not worry about it.