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Is it possible for a record to be too loud?

I was just listen to a copy of a newish Sigur Ros album "Valtari" and on last two tracks on side B it has pretty huge dynamic swings. It gets so loud that my cart, EMT TSD 15, starts doing what I can only describe as maxing out. Left channel starting squawking and both channels sound crazy compressed.

The only other things I could think of is maybe I am overloading my input impedance on the pre, since this is a MC with a 1.05mv output that doesn't seem like it should be ruled out.

Any ideas? Bad pressing? Faulty cartridge to tonearm matching?..which is a Ortofon RS 309d and preforms absolutely wonderfully on every other record in my collection.
ohnofiasco
diggory
38 posts
 
Indeed, there's no shortage of records cut too hot that are so loud it makes tracking really hard. There's a fine line between enormous and wonderful dynamics and over the top. This is where a good mastering/cutting professional comes into their own.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,047 posts
 
To further what Diggory has said, in the cutting process, it is impossible to overload the cutter system. The dynamic constraints exist in playback only. It is the engineer's job to understand what can be played back easily and what cannot.

However I have a copy of the LP in question and it plays fine without compression or mistracking (Triplanar and a Grado Sonata). This suggests that your setup is not optimized- the mechanical resonance of the arm and cartridge together should be between 7 and 12 Hz, else you can have mistracking problems.

Another thing that can contribute to this issue is cartridge loading. With moving coil cartridges the effect of loading occurs at Radio Frequencies. However if your preamp is sensitive to RF the effect of loading can be dramatic, and you have described what it can sound like if there is a loading problem.
ohnofiasco OP
49 posts
 
Thanks for the advice, making me feel a little less crazy.

After posting this I spent a good few hours going down the compliance rabbit hole only to find out that all of the manufacturers weight measurements were way off and my cart/headshell/screw were spot on where I wanted the whole time. At first I thought I was running a bit heavy, around 6hz, but after throwing everything on my scale there was a whole 10g difference from the specs I was using to calculate.
actusreus
733 posts
 
What's the gain you're using with your cartridge? 1.05 mV is quite high for a MC cart and would overload the phono stage at most MC gain settings. If a record is cut hot on top of it, it would only exacerbate the problem.
ohnofiasco OP
49 posts
 
55 db, I think. It sounds fantastic on every other record I own, but heck that could be why. Would definitely fill out the sound a little bit if it were over driven.
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