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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
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.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,039 posts
 
A moving coil phono section that overloads with 1mV from the cartridge is a phono section with poor overload characteristics, FWIW.
davide256's avatar
davide256
400 posts
 
The most common mistake with a phono cartridge is to set tracking force at the lightest end of the cartridge spec. Set the catridge at the upper end of the range and see if the problem goes away. You do damage to stylus and record with mistracking at too light a pressure.
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