Hello all,
I recently got my stereo equipment back after an extended break (essentially it all lived at my parent's house while I lived a few states away). However, now that I have everything hooked up, I’m finding that the sound I’m getting from my record player to be not so great. Granted, I have a lower end set-up (A 90s Denon AV-900, a Technics SL-1500, and Polk R-50 speakers), but playing CDs through this setup (with a Technics SL-PD5) sounds fine to my ears. Case and point, I was playing a UK Chrysalis/Island first press of Jethro Tull’s Benefit, which sounded fuzzy and distorted, which I know should not be the case for that pressing (I’m not talking surface noise, it is the sound quality). Basically every track sounded like it had inner groove distortion, which I don’t think should be happening.
As such, I am thinking about replacing the cartridge on my turntable. I’ve had the turntable for about 9 years and I have never changed out the cartridge before, so I would imagine the time would be right to do that. I am not sure what is currently on there, I bought the player used and have no idea how long this cartridge has been on there.
While I love these forums and frequently post, I’m a total novice when it comes to equipment, so I’d love some assistance with this. I’m looking into getting one of the Audio Technica MicroLine cartridges, but I have no idea if that will be good for my setup. How do I found out about things like capacitance and whatnot (which is something I had not heard of until I started looking into this)? Is it difficult to set up a MicroLine cartridge? Is there another cartridge I should be looking into?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!