2. analog
  3. 1388094897

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
mofimadness's avatar
mofimadness
4,152 posts
 
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.
sarcher30
596 posts
 
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.
sarcher30
596 posts
 
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.
lewm
6,770 posts
 
Suffice to say that if your LPs do not compete with your digital, something is amiss, assuming the LPs were of good quality to begin with; not necessarily perfect, just good should at least equal or beat your digital sources.
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
3,018 posts
 
The Elys 2 is not a great cartridge, having owned one. But it does need break-in time and typically will sound very open and bright. The RP3 is an easy setup, so I would agree with the others to check the preamp settings; MM at 47K and capacitance between 100 and 300pF.

BTW, is your tonearm parallel to the record when playing?
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