Pick it MC-1H Cartridge

[abhijitwadekar]

Hi stevieboy,
I did plug in the 12ax7's today and ran them for an hour. The tubes are barely glowing like the previous tubes. I am not sure if the tubes are problematic or they will take a few hours to burn-in and start glowing. The out-put is also nothing to write about. Guess will have to wait for 30 odd hours for the tubes to show there true sonic signature.
Sure will go for the higher grade tubes suggested by you once i get that upgraditis bug again. Shouldnt be long from getting that though

Mahiruha,
my phono has switch to change the circuits for 12ax7 tubes..
Regards
Abhijit

 

[stevieboy]

Hi Abhijit,

You're not likely to hear any difference after 30 hours. NOS tubes are rarely unplayed or 'new', they generally have hours on them and a good amount of useful life left. So they're already 'burnt in'. There is a sound (pun intended) reason for the cost diff between regular affordable tubes and the more in demand ones If you were in Bangalore, I'd have got some tubes over for a listening session.

Also glow is a factor of how much of the metal rod is exposed to view, eg my 5687s glow far more than the 12ax7s, has nothing to do with reliability or problems.

Regards

 

[abhijitwadekar]

Hi Abhijit,

You're not likely to hear any difference after 30 hours. NOS tubes are rarely unplayed or 'new', they generally have hours on them and a good amount of useful life left. So they're already 'burnt in'. There is a sound (pun intended) reason for the cost diff between regular affordable tubes and the more in demand ones If you were in Bangalore, I'd have got some tubes over for a listening session.

Also glow is a factor of how much of the metal rod is exposed to view, eg my 5687s glow far more than the 12ax7s, has nothing to do with reliability or problems.

Regards

Hi stevieboy,
So you mean to say this is how they are going to sound all along?:sad:
Ok, let me put a few hours of listening and switch in between to 6n2p's and compare and see. will keep you posted. thanks for all the help and advice

Regards
Abhijit

 

[stevieboy]

Hi Abhijit,

Are your tubes old tubes or new ones? Here's a link to new issue tubes, made currently, note the gold pins.

NEW Tung-Sol 12AX7 ECC803S ECC803-S GOLD PIN TUBE 2PCS | eBay


And here's a link for tungsols you'll find old tungsols here.
tungsol 12ax7 | eBay

Check the design of the plate and any other similarities you can find to see if the tubes you bought are original. I once did get tubes that were branded Mullard from him but were not Mullard.

Perhaps the phonostage circuit needs some time for the components to get some play time? Worst case if you don't like it, ask him if he'll take it back minus shipping.

Regards

 

[abhijitwadekar]

Hi Abhijit,

Are your tubes old tubes or new ones? Here's a link to new issue tubes, made currently, note the gold pins.

NEW Tung-Sol 12AX7 ECC803S ECC803-S GOLD PIN TUBE 2PCS | eBay


And here's a link for tungsols you'll find old tungsols here.
tungsol 12ax7 | eBay

Check the design of the plate and any other similarities you can find to see if the tubes you bought are original. I once did get tubes that were branded Mullard from him but were not Mullard.

Perhaps the phonostage circuit needs some time for the components to get some play time? Worst case if you don't like it, ask him if he'll take it back minus shipping.

Regards

Hi stevieboy the tubes are brand new and look exactly as seen in the link provided by you along with the cardboard boxes.
Looks genuine to me. My guess is that as the circuit for 12ax7 was never used so it may take few hours to start working optimally.
Abhijit

 

[stevieboy]

Ah,

You will find varied opinion on this but me, I'd take a good NOS tube over a new production tube any day. Very few exceptions. Give the circuit some hours but I'm afraid things won't change that dramatically, let's see...

Regards

 

[jls001]

For lights, put dhinchak LED lights:yahoo:

 

[stevieboy]

Very appropriate, especially since Diwali is coming hehe...

 

[abhijitwadekar]

Hi friends wanted to update after receiving valuable inputs from you all. Just to re-cap I had fitted my Project Xpression III with Pick-it MC-1H HOMC. This cart was developed for project by Ortofon. The HOMC cart was plugged to the MM input on my Lyrita Phono. The sound out put that I got was very low and it appeared that the cart was not compatible with the phono stage On stevieboys suggestion I did change to 12ax7 Tungsol tubes improving the sound output by roughly 10% but the compatibility issue stayed.
After looking at the Ortofon web page I found this cartridge similar to X1-MCP (Products - Cartridges - X1-MCP) with an internal impedence of 80 ohms.
First thing I did was contacted Mr Viren Bakshi of lyrita audio who was kind enough to give me patient listening and gave me an advise of adding 100 ohms resistor in parallel to the input in the phono bringing the total impedance to 99.788 ohms. He generously mailed me those resistors. On adding them to the phono and giving a burn-in of 30 hours or so now the cart has opened up beautifully. The sound stage is detailed and just the way it should sound.
Secondly it prompted me to do some research and came to understand that there are phono stages for HOMC carts like the TCC TC760LC (Amazon.com: TCC TC-760LC BLACK Moving Magnet / Moving Coil Phono Preamp w/Level Control: Electronics). I Went ahead and procured one through 20north.com. This phono has a MM and MC cart input along with a switch to select between 20 and 100 ohms impedance for LOMC and HOMC carts respectively. I Connected the TT to both MM input and HOMC input alternately and was surprised to note the same significant difference in sound quality that I had noted with the lyrita phono stage.
So in conclusion even though the HOMC cart manufacturers do recommend connecting the cart to MM input with 47kohms impedance it definitely makes sense in matching the cart impedance and tweaking the phono accordingly.

Regards
Abhijit

 

[stevieboy]

Glad to hear that everything is playing well now abhijit!


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