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Originally Posted by odub  Thanks Omni: I was lead to believe that a worn needle could create distortion problems independent of the state of the cartridge, hence why I separated them into distinct, potential problem areas.
You raise a good point though - all three carts I've switched between (Nightclub, White Label and m44-7) are primarily made for DJ use vs. home listening so they may not be the best trio to compare between. I'll see if I can borrow a different cart to pursue a more proper point of comparison.
However, just to note: the Nightclub E supposedly outputs at 6mV compared with 9.5 for the M44-7 yet the latter actually has *less* distortion. The Shure White Label I also tried is similar to the Nightclub - 6mV - but it too has less distortion. So again, I'm left with trying to troubleshoot what might be going on with the Nightclub in this case.
Thanks again for the suggestions. |
There are a lot of things to take into consideration when we are discussing a device with moving parts. Needle wear will attribute to distortion although you may notice cleaning the stylus for every record played to prevent the tone arm from skating across the platter.
The last time my turntables entered a venue was 1998. Today, they are for listening to old records from time to time at home since, I don’t see the logics of toting an analogue turntable in a digital realm from place to place. I have no idea where the market stands in 2010 in terms of cartridges. A cartridge offering an output of 6mv was very loud in the 1990’s and anything beyond that was too loud (offered more distortion) on a majority of records.
Here is the cartridge I own/use which, are/were aimed for DJs at the time. As you can see it is 4.4 mV
http://www.pickeringuk.com/v15dj.html
I would imagine cartridges for DJs are not aimed for sound quality anymore but more to wards durability and loudness why 6 mV appears to be the standard these days.
Cheers!