Cartridge question

[Fran]

Hey all,


You can see from the ho ho thread I snagged a new denon deck with a nice aT1009 arm and an older B&O MMC6000 cart. When I first started playing the deck, the sound was not bad, but a bit recessed, lacking detail maybe. I was putting this down to the cart being the age it is etc etc etc. Having said that this cart seems very highly regarded.

Anyway, I threw 10 or 11 sides of LPs at it yesterday/last night. The sound has definitely cleared up considerably since then. Lots more detail and resonance - improved soundstage and vocal positioning. What I'm wondering - is this normal? I haven't been able to view the stylus (yet) so I can't estimate wear - it all looks very clean etc. but I was thinking that maybe it just needed a run out to loosen back up again. I should add I thought there was a bit of channel imbalance when I first started playing it, but that went very quickly.

Anyone ever experienced this?

[Ivor]

No, but I tend to leave carts in place these days! That swapping carts in and out is a young man's game.
It does seem entirely plausible that a cart unused for years would need to loosen a bit though.

[fergus]

What about dust/dirt Fran; perhaps it could do with a bit of a clean as it appears to have been lying up for some time?

[ConorW]

Fran - Like Ivor I tend to leave my cartridge in place, so not experienced in this.

However, given the inductive mechanism in an MC or MM cartridge you could argue that (particularly) a coil that has been sitting for some time would loose a little of its flexibility and take time to regain it's elasticity.
The coils are so fine that they could regain sensitivity and improve resolution after a few plays.

However since yours is an MM I would think this factor would be less but yet still present as the mechanisms loosen ups.

That's a purely theoretical view.
Conor

[Fran]

Good points all...

I wondered if it might be the rubber mounting for the cantilever loosening a bit.... given that it had sat unused for so long. The coil assembly etc is very "sealed" - not at all open frame the way more modern carts are so I can't do any cleaning.Most B&O carts were in their own proprietary P mount system - one reason why they are so hard to find now. This one is the regular mount though:




Thats the rubber mount just at the end of the cantilever:



This is really the only moving part.

[giant haystacks]

the polish forum member i cant remember his user name he is knoledgable about record players his name maybe dariuz anyway he used these cartridges and may have some input to help

[Diapason]

Dariusz goes by Darek on the forum, FYI.