Poor sounding analog?


After 25 years of not having a turntable in my system, I finally purchased a new rega RP3 which came with their ElysII MM cartirdge.

I pulled out one of the 500 or so albums in my basement that I used to enjoy, cleaned it thoroughly and was incredibly dissapointed in the sound.

I have a McIntosh 2300 preamp which has never had any burn-in for the phono preamp section. However, I cant believe that new tubes would sound this flat.

its a very simple unit to set up. Nothing tricky.

What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance for the help!
dmm53
It could be that the table was setup incorrectly, VTF, VTA, etc., or it could be that the old LP's need better cleaning or care. We do not know how the LP's were stored or cleaned, so there could be mold issues that could require steam cleaning.
I agree with Jmc. Also, if the cartridge is new, it will need to break-in. Allow at least 40-50 hours for it to smooth out.
The Elys is a pretty disappointing cartridge. The Rega Exact is much better sounding. You may want to make sure the phono stage is on the MM setting, and if there is adjustable loading that it is set to 47k.
After looking at the manual for your preamp, it looks like there is a separate input for MM and MC cartridges. Make sure you have your tonearm wires plugged into the MM input. There is some adjustment for capacitance on the MM input. Try messing with that. It may help.