Do I Have the Wrong Cartridge?

Thank you all for the replies and such valuable information.

It seems that a high output MC is what I need to match my phono stage. I think my local HiFi shop just wanted to sell me a Rega w/o asking any pertinent questions. I will be making a visit to a different dealer who carries Denon.
And the distortions in Rock music confirm why the cart sounds so different when playing classical.
Once again, I thank you.

And to Dougdeacon...very good explanation. I misunderstood the term VTA. I balanced my tonearm using downloaded instructions on how to balance a Linn tonearm. I experimented by moving the counterweight and could see the different angle of the stylus in the groove and set the tonearm balance by the best sound to my ear.

And Al, I missed your post. Gee you have a good memory, I do have collection of Telarc on vinyl. They and Decca Digital have very good sonics. I do stay away from Digitally mastered LPs unless it's a must-own item.

Lastly my friends, any recommendations of a HOMC cart would be appreciated. Since I blew the money on the Rega my budget would be $200-250.

And it seems that the Denon DL-160 has been discontinued.

I can't think of many reasons to prefer HOMC to a good MM. The purpose of the MC design is to reduce moving mass on the cantilever, which increases responsiveness and dynamics. To achieve this, LOMC's have minimal coils (and thus minimal output). To achieve higher output levels from the same design, the HOMC version of a cartridge typically doubles or even quadruples the coil windings. This of course undermines the original concept. HOMCs arguably bring you the worst of both designs, often at higher cost than an MM.

My main cartridge is an $8,500 LOMC, however I own a couple of sub-$200 MMs that sound amazingly good for their cost. Again, check out Raul's MM vs. MC thread for valuable suggestions and experiences.

Just my $.02...

Thanks, Lowrider. Before you give up on this cartridge, here are some further thoughts:

I took a look at the manual for the Linn Axis, which is written based on the presumption that a Linn Akito tonearm is being used. It appears that the arm has a calibrated VTF (vertical tracking force) dial on the counterweight, which should be initially adjusted such that it reads zero when the counterweight is set such that the arm "floats" (i.e., it does not have any downward or upward force). That should be done with "bias" (antiskating) set to zero. The counterweight is then adjusted to the desired VTF.

VTA (vertical tracking angle) is set by loosening a hex screw on the base of the arm, and raising or lowering the height until (as recommended in the manual) the arm tube is parallel to the record surface. It can be and ideally should be fine tuned from there by listening.

Are those the procedures that you followed, and if so what tracking force did you end up with?

Also, I note that the manual recommends setting the bias/antiskating dial to the same value as the tracking force. That kind of recommendation has often been made by turntable manufacturers, but is completely ridiculous IME. If that is what you have done, try setting it to half that value, and fine tune from there by ear.

Concerning my earlier comments about load capacitance, given the three foot length of your phono cable, and the 100 pf input capacitance of Rega's own MM phono stage (which would presumably be a suitable match for their cartridges, in combination with the capacitance of typical lengths of typical phono cables), I suspect that neither setting of the 0/150 pf switch on your preamp would introduce a great enough incompatibility to account for most or all of the symptoms you have described. But it's probably still worth opening the preamp and trying the other setting, as that could conceivably help to some degree.

Best,
-- Al