Needles & Grooves

Is your cart MC and your amp set for MM? That could be the reason? Also I think different carts do have varying outputs, but I'm far from an expert in that. I just know that hitting the MM/MC button on my amp fixed the volume issue I was having when I set mine up.

I had the same issue when I upgraded to my AT-VM95ML cartridge. Never could figure out why. @Heath what is MC and MM?

@Sonicpharmacist my preamp has a button that I push depending on whether I have a moving magnet (MM) or a moving coil (MC) cartridge. And when I replaced my AT-LP120 with my U-Turn, I was having issues with it being too quiet, and from what I remember it was because I had knocked that button, and it was expecting a different type of cart from the one I had

Also I should note that it was WAY quieter for me...if it's only a little bit softer, it could be that the output of the new cart is just lower...the AT-VM95ML looks like it's 3mV, which I believe is on the lower end of things, so that could be what was going on too, @Sonicpharmacist

I also have the AT-LP120, I don’t have a preamp, my receiver has a dedicated phono plug/jack. I’ve gotten used to it, but I’m open to suggestions too.

Yes, different cartridges can have different output levels even when they are the same engine type. My Ortofon 2M Blue puts out 5.5mV but a Shure M97xE puts out 4.0 mV, a 37.5% difference. Both are moving magnet cartridges.