|
The potting compound inside crystal and ceramic cartridges can get hard and brittle and prevent reed vibration. This kills the output. I've used west-tech before and they're ok. I've had about a 90% success rate.
You might think about substituting a newer ceramic cartridge. Not only are they better on records with lighter tracking, but sound better. The only thing you run into is output.
A crystal cartridge and some older ceramic carts put out anywhere from 2-5v p-p - whereas you're lucky to get 600mv out of a modern ceramic cartridge. This could be remedied by the use of a single stage FET amplifier. The gain wouldn't have to be tremendous (about 4-5) which would mean about 5-8 parts on a postage stamp size piece of perfboard. This would yield adequate volume and decent sound quality. a late 60s, early 70s electrovoice cart or good ol TN4 cart would be good contenders for this project.
__________________
Jordan
|