folsom_lives
Well-Known Member
Are the gain settings you refer to the MC/MM button on the front? Maybe this is the issue I'm having with not liking the sound on the AT. Any harm in switching the gain to check?
Grado Cartridges and Stylus - Questions and Advice.
- Thread starter RenegadeMonster
- Start date
Yeah at 40dB you’d be just that bit too low for the Low Ouput. You can compensate by cranking the amp a bit once it’s north of 45 but around 50 is probably the ideal.
Which AT are you using? If it’s an MM it will likely sound much worse if you increase the gain to MC levels!
folsom_lives
Well-Known Member
ART-9. I have zero knowledge when it comes to this level of tinkering. No pun intended.
Oh the art 9 is an MC. You should have that at the MC gain levels for sure! That’s a really highly rated cartridge that’s above the grados you’re looking at, if you get it dialled in right it should sound fantastic!
folsom_lives
Well-Known Member
Yup. I think I'm fighting two battles at once here with my phono being a bit mismatched for the caliber cart that came with the StudioDeck and preferring a warmer Grado sound. Not really in the market to spring for a $1,000+ phono stage right now so I'd like to find a more appropriate Grado to fit the near term.
AnthonyI
Well-Known Member
Let me know if you want to demo the Opus3 Low Output on your Pho-8 before making any decisions. I ran it at 55db and it was fine on the UD/Manley combo. You could try it at 60db and see how it sounds, should be a decent bench mark for moving up the Grado line.
folsom_lives
Well-Known Member
That would be a fantastic option. At the least it would let me know if my money would be better spent on a new preamp.Let me know if you want to demo the Opus3 Low Output on your Pho-8 before making any decisions. I ran it at 55db and it was fine on the UD/Manley combo. You could try it at 60db and see how it sounds, should be a decent bench mark for moving up the Grado line.
kvetcha
Well-Known Member
fwiw I’d also triple check your calibration, VTF, etc. The ART9 is, by all accounts, a superb cart.
Angsty
Well-Known Member
The ART-9 is a high-end cartridge and it's possible that it's not a great match for the Vincent PHO-8. I see the nominal MC loading for the PHO-8 is 100 ohm and the nominal impedance for the ART-9 is 12 ohms. The "10x rule" would suggest that the phono loading should be at least a 120 ohms and phonos are known to vary from their stated specs a bit.
Besides matching the turntable tonearm, make sure that the phono is a good match to the cartridge. I don't see any red flags in using the high-output Opus3 with the Vincent PHO-8 and several members have used the Opus3 to good effect with the StudioDeck tonearm.
Yeah, cartridge matching is one of the more fiddly parts of vinyl enjoyment.
AnthonyI
Well-Known Member
I think I have your address, but shoot me a DM and I'll get it out to you.
Yeah the opus is a gorgeous sounding cartridge for the money. If you decided to buy it after the demo I doubt you’d feel short changed! If you do go that way. I’d probably buy the High Output one longer term for your stage though, it’s a better fit. Plus you could put the art 9 and the savings from buying an opus over a platinum or sonata to one side as the start of the fund for the better phono stage!
Let me know if you want to demo the Opus3 Low Output on your Pho-8 before making any decisions. I ran it at 55db and it was fine on the UD/Manley combo. You could try it at 60db and see how it sounds, should be a decent bench mark for moving up the Grado line.
Only quick thing, not that I want to throw a fly in the ointment, would the 100 ohm loading of the pho 8 at MC 60dB be a really bad match for for the opus that’s stated at 10k-47k ohms?
folsom_lives
Well-Known Member
No doubt it is. I just think there are times where my system struggles to keep up. There have been a few tracks where the low end just completely drops off because one part of the chain can't keep up. Never had that with the Grado Gold on the Uturn. If anything it tended to like the low end.
Thanks for the technical input. I think I need a primer on loading and matching since a lot of the numbers being thrown around I hardly understand.
Angsty
Well-Known Member
Here is one that helped me from Hagerman Labs. The calculator function may prove more useful than the equations.
Angsty
Well-Known Member
I saw that, too. It looks like the loading and gain are fixed for the two MM/MC settings. Not sure if the MC setting would provide enough loading and that the MM setting would provide enough gain for the low output Opus3.
folsom_lives
Well-Known Member
Dude it's Monday and there are logarithmic scales on these graphs. I'm going to need more coffee.
And a bank holiday Monday at that! They don’t pay me to do pure maths as it is, never mind that it’s a day off!
Angsty
Well-Known Member
Yeah, Pspice is not pumpkin spice, either! As always, YMMV.
AnthonyI
Well-Known Member
Valid point, and I'm not 100% sure. While on and MC the load is more of a recommendations and you can play with them a bit, I'm not sure in the MM world how that would play out, especially with the low output.