The PHILCO Phorum
Cannot catch a break: now an Ortofon pickup. - Printable Version

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Cannot catch a break: now an Ortofon pickup. - morzh - 11-25-2016

Last weekend I received an Ortofon pickup for my turntable. Claimed to be NOS, from Denmark (not many of them, in fact the only person who was selling it.

Today put it in my Technics. It is a T4P cartridge so it is a snap to do.

Sounds really great. I was about to leave the feedback but something stopped me. I thought the sound was asymnetric. I was playing an organ piece so the difference between the channels is not huge.
I listened to the right channel - there it was...nothing.
Put ZZ TOP sure enough, it became obvious right away.

Tried cables, nothing.

Put the old cartridge (a Stanton) back - both channels are fine.

So....return initiated to Denmark.

Ay carramba.

And it is so sad, the record of the organ really sounded wonderful.

RE: Cannot catch a break: now an Ortofon pickup. - sam - 11-25-2016

Ok silly question
How will a needle know the difrance of left and right


Sam

RE: Cannot catch a break: now an Ortofon pickup. - morzh - 11-25-2016

It is a flex square frame, moving the magnet in different directions, and the record is also polarised.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_cartridge#/media/File%3AMoving_Coil_Cartridge.jpg

RE: Cannot catch a break: now an Ortofon pickup. - morzh - 11-25-2016

Update


PS. Decided to install the cartridge again. Hmmmm.....shows open at the cable's end on the right. With the Stanton shows both channels at 500 ohm.

Bad socket spring in tonearm?

PPS. Yes. Stanton is reliably connected and the Ortofon's right is not.
I even see the reason. The Ortofon's pins are tapered or coned. Very slightly. But the coning starts at the middle of the pins and so the end diameter is just a little smaller. And for one of the contacts that is enough.
The Stanton was bought together with the turntable and I never touched it so there was no mating cycles.
I tried pressing upon the contacts...they have no leeway.

Not sure what to do. Don't want to screw the tonearm so my Stanton does not work either.

RE: Cannot catch a break: now an Ortofon pickup. - morzh - 11-25-2016

Well...under impression there was a problem with tonearm connector I tried some tricks, to no avail.
Eventually, frustrated, I measured the resistance on the cartridge again.
Well...sad news. It is an intermittent connection problem.
The left channel reliably shows 700 Ohm whenever probed, but the right one show open, then some kiloohms, then when touched and lightly pressed side to side, 750 ohm, then again open or tens of kiloohms.

I photographed it with my Fluke clipped to right/left channels, showing open or 700 ohms respectively.

Will have to return.

RE: Cannot catch a break: now an Ortofon pickup. - sam - 11-25-2016

Thanks mike
I did not know that

Sam

RE: Cannot catch a break: now an Ortofon pickup. - morzh - 11-26-2016

Well

The seller seems to be a decent fellow, he read what I've done, apologized, said that it is nice to have a customer who knows what he's doing, and offered me another cartridge he was keeping for himself, plus another stylus.

Well, it'll take another 3 weeks but hey, it is in Denmark and the shipping was free.