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Few technical questions about an Ortofon MC cart on a Scout 2...

Non-technical enthusiast here, facing a bit of a conundrum...

I picked up a Scout 2 today, and the previous owner was kind enough to throw in a high end Ortofon X5-MC, albeit "possibly broken". During handling he knocked the cantilever. It’s perfectly centred and the stylus appears in tact, but when the cartridge makes contact with vinyl the cantilever recedes or "lifts" a hair...as in, it gets pushed back into the body by about 1-1.5mm.

The record player itself is in beautiful shape and appears to be functioning perfectly, but every record I’ve played so far sounds sluggish and rather muffled in the low end - particularly as compared to my spritely Rega P3.

Adding to the confusion is my phono preamp - a Sonneteer Sedley, which has all kinds of resistive and capacitance switches for MM/MC carts. I’ve tried about 3-4 settings so far, in the ballpark for a high output MC cart, but none has remedied this basic "sluggishness".

Can you kind folks help me diagnose this? Is the cartridge definitely kaput? If so, can it be repaired? Is it possibly a tracking/force issue?

I won’t bore you with the Sedley’s switches and X5’s technical specs unless it comes to that...

pupil
almarg's avatar
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almarg
8,673 posts
 
... switch 2 on the left side is the 47ohm resistive load, which is the only dip I have in the down position.

That’s the problem, or at least most of it!!

The 47K load that is recommended for the cartridge means 47,000 ohms, not 47 ohms (which would only be suitable for some low output moving coil cartridges).

When you put left channel switches 1 through 4 and right channel switches 7 through 10 to the up position you’ll be applying the proper 47,000 ohm load to the cartridge, and I’m sure you’ll notice a dramatic improvement.

Regards,
-- Al


almarg's avatar
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almarg
8,673 posts
 
P.S:  When you make that change, though, you'll be significantly increasing the signal voltage that is received by the phono stage, so per my earlier comments you may find that the low gain setting of the phono stage (left channel switch 9 and right channel switch 2 both set to the down position) works better than the up position you are presently using.

Regards,
-- Al
stevecham
3,298 posts
 
You need to have the cartridge looked at professionally as suggested above. It sounds like the suspension is damaged.
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pupil OP
7 posts
 
Dear Al (and others),

So the major switch to 47ohm made a night/day difference. The cartridge and table now sound like they should, barring some minor adjustments.

One question though: so far in my experimenting, it strikes me that the cartridge sounds best - most "open" - with NO capacitance loading engaged. Should I continue to experiment here? I ask because the manual explicitly states that zero capacitance is not recommended.

In the meantime, I've ordered a Shure force gauge to help me re-calibrate the cartridge from scratch.
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