Trying a turntable-it sounds crappy, what's up??


Borrowed a friends TT.
It is a Technics SL-1900 Direct drive(Panasonic circa 1980's is my guess).
The cartidge is an Audio TEchnica with the #'s 22780 on it.

I hooked it up to my Musical Fidelity A300 integrated amp which has a dedicated phono input.
I aa not sure if this TT and cartidge should be on the MM or MC setting.
I have tried both and one is louder than the other.

I had not used a TT since my Phillips belt drive was stolen 12 years ago. It certainly sounded better than this or maybe I am just nostalgic.

I was kind of excited about trying a TT again as I have about 300 albums from college and the 80's/early 90's.

Anyway-I pulled out Steely Dan Gaucho (a good recording if memory serves me) and it sounded warmish but a kind of muffled. Nothing was really that defined.
I teid a nice Elvis Costello aLP and it also sounded very undynamic.

I have a decent digital front end (CAry 308 CD Player) and nice speakers (ACI Sapphires with an ACI Titan Sub). MAny feel that this Cary and these speakers tend toward neutral and warmish sound. Nice system.

What's up-is this a crappy turntable or a crummy cartridge?
WHich setting should this be on MC or MM?
Thanks for any insight-I wa skind of thinking about taking the plunge again, but am not sure now.
lkdog
Lk, I've already gone through the motions of modding a 1200. I know what does what. My initial suggestions still hold:

1) Oil
2) Sorbothane hemispheres
3) Cryo'ed outlet
4) Call Kevin

There's more you can do on the cheap, but start w/ the above.

***
I just found out from the owner tonight that he thinks he bought the turntable in mid 70's!!!!
He may be wrong as he was high most of the 70's, but at any rate it is an older model.
It was serviced here locally about five-six years ago but I cannot vouch for what they did.
He thinks the AT cartridge was bought about the same time but he cannot remember.
I took off the shell mount and cartridge and found out it is an AT12SaPQ model. I did a Google and it does not show up anywhere so I have no idea what quality it is/was.

Will contact Kevin for more info.
Thanks.
OK, I have a little more info FWIW and also wish to share a little experience I had today.
I got some info on the cartridge from Kevin at KAB and also an A-goner in another thread.

Anyway-will maybe try a different cartridge to see what things sound like. Kevin at KAB beleives that the SL-1900 will provide pretty decent sound with the right cartridge and if things are set up correctly.

In order to learn a little more firsthand I went to a local midfi, sort of high end store today. They had four different turntables set up with different systems.
An entry level Music Hall, a Music Hall MMF 5 with the stock cartridge, a Project 1 Xpressions, and something else.

Out of curiousity I asked to hear the Music Hall MMF 5 that was running through a midfi Denon receiver and was playing through some average monitors, no sub.

The sound was smooth, but boxy, and small soundstage. Not real impressed.

I then went to another room where they has the Project
1 Xpression TT with a Sumiko basic cartridge. It was running through a Musical Fidelity A308 Integrated Amp and was playing through some multi driver large JM Labs speakers. The sound was smooth, but again the soundstage was small and I was not thinking this is great or anything.

In fact it was not that much better than this Technics with this mystery AT cartridge that I am borrowing.

For yucks, I also listened to the Musical Fidelity A308 CD player hooked up to the system. That was impressive-huge soundstage, depth, clarity, extension on both ends, blah, blah, blah.
Slightly edgy compared to the turntable as the source on the same int amp/speakers but that was only element that might have been better from the TT.

Anyway,the Music Hall TT may have been hampered by the basic system it was hooked up to. The Project 1 Xpression should have performed better as it was in a very nice system. I think the Music Hall was listed a $629 and the Project 1 at $400+ something.