[John Casler]

A few months ago I fired up my TT (Denon DP-755 Turntable/ Shure SME 3009 Series III Tone Arm/Sumiko Blue Point Special)
Then I purchased some new King Cobra interconnects to improve the connection and wiring.  Bad news   I couldn't get them to make the "bend" and slip on without taking the arm out of the TT.

So I did.  Only in doing so, I ended up pulling loose a couple of the leads from the harness (crap)

I jury rigged the connections because I would have had to totally dissasemble the arm which would have been a bear.

Fired up the system only to have the Sumiko's diamond go south after a few records.

Plus I had a "hum" that was driving me crazy.

Anyhow I picked up a Shure V15VXMR cartridge, which is supposed to be quite a good match to the Shure 3009 Series III arm I have.

Installation was a nightmare.  As careful as I was, I ended up pulling two of the headshell leads off their pins...again "crap"  

So I finally got them re-soldered which was extremely "fine detailed" work, and again fired it up, only to hear the blasted hum again only louder

So here it has sat for several weeks and I finally took the bull by the horns and dissassembled the table and arm to find the problems.

As it turns out 1 lead and one ground were ripped loose (the freakin hum) and I tried to set up the parts which were held together by the strength of the remaining leads.

Son of a B****ch if I didn't rip another lead loose.

Well to make a long story short (thank goodness) I finally got everything re-soldered, re-assembled, and recalibrated.

Popped on a little Steely Dan's Greatest Hits and Happy (Vinyl) Days are here again      

I will finally get a chance to break this new cartridge in and if what I heard briefly tonight is any indication of the quality of sound, I am a happy camper.

   

[JoshK]

congrats!  Its always fun to hear the needle hit the groove!

[John Casler]

congrats!  Its always fun to hear the needle hit the groove!

Yeah,  I was especially pleased to hear how great the Steely Dan cuts sounded, since before the "operation" above they only sounded "so-so".

I mean they sounded good and all, but didn't have the life I thought they should.  I think the hum (though I thought it was in audible) was filling in backround where there should have been "darkness", and bringing the sound down.

Looking forward to spending a little more "quality" vinyl time next week.

[shokunin]

Glad you got your vinyl rig up!

[Russtafarian]

Sounds like that arm put you through the ringer.  I raise a glass to your soldering skills.  

Let me know how you like the Shure cart.  I'm thinking of getting one for my Rega rig.

What are you using for a phono preamp?  Does the Minimax have one built in?

[John Casler]

Sounds like that arm put you through the ringer.  I raise a glass to your soldering skills.  

Let me know how you like the Shure cart.  I'm thinking of getting one for my Rega rig.

What are you using for a phono preamp?  Does the Minimax have one built in?

Thanks Shokunin and Russtafarian,

Well my exposure the the V15 right now is limited and I can't say I have a lot of critical listening with other good carts right now, but it sounded great for 20 minutes last night. (hardly enough time to warm up the cantilever )

I'm tracking at 1.5g and I'll report more as it breaks in.  I know when I first fired it up when I first got it, I was not hearing great bass, but then the suspension has not begun to loosen up yet either.

Let me get a little "groove time" in

For my phono pre, I am using a vintage Integra P303 preamp phono section.