Do I Have the Wrong Cartridge?

Lowrider, I see what you are referring to, on page 6 of the manual for the Perseus. It makes no sense to me, though, that they would provide a 0/150 pf selection for moving coils, and no capacitance selection for moving magnets. So I'm not sure that the info shown in the manual is correct.

It might be worth your while to open up the preamp, and change the capacitance setting to the opposite of what it is at now. And while you're at it, make sure that resistance is in fact set to 47K, and that gain is set to 45 db and not 65 db.

Hmmm. Come to think of it, the 45 db MM phono stage gain + 15 db line stage gain of that preamp is pretty high for use with that cartridge, which has a specified output under the standard test conditions of "6.8-7.2 mv." Is the harshness and thinness particularly or mainly evident on high volume peaks?

Best regards,
-- Al

Al, no it's not a volume issue, so I'm sure it's set to MM (45 dB), although I will open it up when I have time end of the week to try your suggestions.
Let me describe what sound I'm getting...you know when you have a poor CDP and it has glare on the violins, it's very fatiguing. I always judge a good CDP/DAC on how it can handle solo or mass strings. This cart (or my settings) cannot. Music doesn't sound strained; it just lacks the warmth of vinyl, especially on a known recording such as Karl Bohm with the Vienna, 1970s.

1. Do u think the fact that Rock sounds good on my system is due to the distortions and heavy bass frequencies of the genre vs. the pristine sound of a classical recording?

2. Isn't the capacitance for MM so low that it basically is zero?

I can't say what the answer to Q1 is, without being familiar with the sound of the particular recordings. Re Q2, if load capacitance differs considerably from what is optimal for a particular MM cartridge, in either direction (too high or too low), it will profoundly affect the upper treble, quite possibly the lower treble, and perhaps even the upper mid-range. It is very conceivable that a severe enough mismatch could cause massed strings and brass to sound harsh and thin.

Typical MM load capacitance recommendations tend to be in the area of 100 to 300 pf, or in a few cases as much as 500 pf or so.

Load capacitance will affect LOMC sonics to a MUCH smaller degree, and in indirect ways that involve how the phono stage responds to ultrasonic and RF frequencies. So as I said, despite what the manual seems to say it doesn't make sense that the preamp design would provide a 0/150 pf switch for LOMC's, but no selection for MM's.

The "0" position, btw, will not really be 0 pf. It will be some presumably fairly small number corresponding to the intrinsic input capacitance of the preamp, while the 150 pf position will be 150 pf greater than that. And the capacitance of the phono cable will add significantly to that total.

Repeating my earlier question, how long is the phono cable?

Best,
-- Al

Thanks for the info on Capacitance, Al and I'll try switching to opposite setting.
Phono cable is stock 3 ft. and am waiting to upgrade after I get the cart problem worked out. As far as the cable, the Linn expert who rebuilt the table (Rick at Audio Alternative) said cable is fine for now.

Plus, did not have this cart problem with my former budget Linn cart. Not a great cart musically btw.

You sound like you really know what you are doing, and with Al's help you'll figure it out. Reading through the thread though, I notice 2 things that may be worth mentioning. First is break in. I find all the time that a new phono cart can literally sound defective until its broken in.

The other issue is the Rega cart itself. I'm not too familiar with Rega's carts, but I do remember something about them needing to be aligned using Rega's own spec's and not the industry standard spec's (It starts with a B but I can't remember the correct term.)

Either way, I'm sure you'll figure out what the problem is.