Hi all,
First off let me say thank you again to everyone who's responded. It's really generous of everyone to help me out with their suggestions, all of which are extremely helpful.
When I open up the Ear next week to change the tubes, I'll take a look at the settings and see if different loading settings help out at all.
For now, it's actually sounding pretty good today. I switched over to the Tape 2 input on the Rotel, which seems to have the least gain of any of the inputs--I had just assumed they would be all the same. I think that and letting it settle for a few days as well as leaving it on for extended periods to warm up have really made a difference. I'm getting some really decent bass now. The highs are still a bit bright, but it's definitely getting to a good place.
Everyone's suggestions have been so useful. I'm going to look into a new cartridge (the Dynavector 20X sounds like a good place to start), loading, tube choice, synergy, and possibly a new integrated. I really think I've gotten all I could out of the Blue Point and the Rotel and now that I've got the Scout and Ear it's time to move on in those departments. The Ear is definitely not as forgiving as the Rotel. I'll just need to find something that's a good match with the Scout, Ear, and my speakers!
I just tried ferrite clamps on the tonearm cable, but that didn't do anything about the RF. When I touch the tonearm cable or the tonearm, that's when the RF becomes really audible, but as long as I'm not touching them you can't hear a think at normal volumes. Maybe I should just ignore it? Larryi, thanks for the tip on the loading and the RF, I'll definitely look into this.
First off let me say thank you again to everyone who's responded. It's really generous of everyone to help me out with their suggestions, all of which are extremely helpful.
When I open up the Ear next week to change the tubes, I'll take a look at the settings and see if different loading settings help out at all.
For now, it's actually sounding pretty good today. I switched over to the Tape 2 input on the Rotel, which seems to have the least gain of any of the inputs--I had just assumed they would be all the same. I think that and letting it settle for a few days as well as leaving it on for extended periods to warm up have really made a difference. I'm getting some really decent bass now. The highs are still a bit bright, but it's definitely getting to a good place.
Everyone's suggestions have been so useful. I'm going to look into a new cartridge (the Dynavector 20X sounds like a good place to start), loading, tube choice, synergy, and possibly a new integrated. I really think I've gotten all I could out of the Blue Point and the Rotel and now that I've got the Scout and Ear it's time to move on in those departments. The Ear is definitely not as forgiving as the Rotel. I'll just need to find something that's a good match with the Scout, Ear, and my speakers!
I just tried ferrite clamps on the tonearm cable, but that didn't do anything about the RF. When I touch the tonearm cable or the tonearm, that's when the RF becomes really audible, but as long as I'm not touching them you can't hear a think at normal volumes. Maybe I should just ignore it? Larryi, thanks for the tip on the loading and the RF, I'll definitely look into this.