Distortion with Ortofon Qbert!

[engwall35]

Hi, I'm experiencing issues with the OM Qbert that I bought today. My inital reaction was that the sound it produced was great, there was just so much clarity. Then the track came to the point where the massive kick drum comes in and yeah.. the sound was just horrible. The lower, bass-oriented frequencies were just muddled and extremely distorted, making it completely unlistenable. I don't really know what to think, it might just be that it's a lot louder than my previous cartridge and there's something else wrong with my setup, although I highly doubt this because I can hear the distortion with my speakers off.. just from the record player. If nothing turns up I'll have to try and return it. I'm waiting for an answer from Ortofon as well who've I have mailed. Additional information would be that I'm using a Rega RP1 and up to this point I've had the OM 5E that came with it. Connected is a ADL GT40 USB DAC by Furutech. I'll upload a recording if that would help. Thanks!

[smeg68]

I would go back to the OM 5e, it's all round a better cartridge than the Q-bert which is mainly for scatching and the like.

I take it the 5e didn't exhibit this behaviour? If so then you could maybe change the Q-bert for an OM 10 or even 20 stylus for around the same money.

[Hanuman]

The Qbert has a monster output of 11mV, which is almost triple your OM5E. Sounds to me like there's an overloaded amplifier stage somewhere.

[engwall35]

Smeg, I would disagree.. I found the sound with the Qbert to be vastly superior to OM 5E, if you take the distortion out of the picture that is. I record a lot of vinyl-only stuff to my computer and the OM 5E was just really lacking, especially in the lower frequencies and sounded quite muddled. And yes, nothing seemed wrong with the OM 5E. Hanuman, I think you might be on it. Is this something that can be amended or am I simply looking at getting a cartridge with smaller output? Thanks for the replies! Oh, and does anyone have any experience with the OM 10 or 20?

[gg383]

I really don't know much about the Qbert, but I would try fiddling with the volume & tone controls and maybe re check the alignment weight and anti skate B4 returning it. Just my thoughts. Glenn.

[Keso77]

The Qbert has a monster output of 11mV, which is almost triple your OM5E. Sounds to me like there's an overloaded amplifier stage somewhere.

I think this is spot on, especially considering your description of the problem.

[sergio_s]

Qbert is a turntablist cartridge! What would you expect?

Do you want to digitize your records? Give a try to the Audio Technica AT95E

[engwall35]

I really don't know much about the Qbert, but I would try fiddling with the volume & tone controls and maybe re check the alignment weight and anti skate B4 returning it. Just my thoughts. Glenn.

Already fiddled with all the knobs that I possibly could before coming here, but thanks!

Qbert is a turntablist cartridge! What would you expect?

Do you want to digitize your records? Give a try to the Audio Technica AT95E

I'm not that knowledgeable myself since I'm completely knew to all this stuff. The guy in the store recommended this to me and apparently didn't bother pointing out the difference to me. Yes, exactly. I'll look it up. Anyone have any experience with the Ortofon Arkiv?

[sergio_s]

These Ortofons (Arkiv, Qbert, Pro, Pro S, DJ, Elektro, Nightclub, S120) are dj cartridges at all, engineered to work at high tracking forces (3 to 5 grams) in order to avoid skip during back-cueing and scratching.

If your purpose is listen and/or digitize, go for a good Hi-Fi cart, there's no reason to make your records suffer with such high tracking force!
And you'll get a worse listening experience too!

Try the cheap AT95E, it will beat every dj cart in terms of sound quality. (With the money needed for an OM Arkiv, you could get two AT95E...!)

[sergio_s]

25€
http://www.ebay.it/itm/Tonabnehmer-Syst ... 2007wt_947

Give it a try