Do I Have the Wrong Cartridge?

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

Thanks Al, I always appreciate your advice. That info from the manual is what I followed verbatim. Dial set to zero, moved counterweight till arm was floating, etc. It was really quite easy. Used the hex screw setting; that is when I used a ruler and a Level to adjust for horizontal position.

As far as anti-skating, I've read articles debunking the Linn and other brands' method, so I've gone to minimal settings. I'm sure the table is set up correctly.

I do plan on changing to 100pf and check settings as per your initial advice. THANKS.

Dougdeacon, Thanks for more valuable advice...I'm familiar w/ Raul's thread and will read it.

But one question first, IYO should I be looking for a MM with low output specs?

Lowrider57, you started this thread saying that rock recordings sounded excellent with the Rega. These recordings could not sound excellent if the Rega was overloading your phono stage. The peak levels on rock and classical recordings are the same. Typically rock recordings have a higher average level than classical recordings so if you were experiencing phono stage overload you would hear it more often with rock recordings. And it won't sound like a Les Paul driving a Marshall stack. The distortion would be raspy and amusical sounding. It's possible that the Rega may not be a very good cartridge for classical strings, but it's not because it's overloading your phono stage.