Sony PSHX 500 - sound problems

[Vik Iyer]

I have just bought Sony PSHX 500 and intended to play through a Cambridge Audio Azure 540A amp. The sound is mega muffled - we are into 'not working' territory as opposed to sub optimal. The turntable has a line out function which in theory means no preamp needed. I have tried connecting this function into the equivalent line functions of the amp - no joy. I tried using the phono option - same result and used a grounding wire. It's a brand new turntable so unlikely that it is broken.

It is an old amp . Do we think that despite the turntable having a line out function that I still need a pre amp? My understanding was a preamp deliver better sound rather than simply makes the thing work.

One final strange thing. The amp works with everything else. The CD player works well on CD mode and if you push another button (say 'DVD') the sound goes off as you'd expect. With the turntable, the really bad sound comes through every button on the amp. Hope that makes sense, hard to explain.

 

[lucid]

My first thoughts are that you could have a faulty stylus, or a ridiculously dusty one.

From the sound of it you've done a sensible amount of troubleshooting. The line inputs on the amp all check out. The common factor here is the TT.
- If you had bad audio leads then you'd get one or no channels working, or crackly sound, but it would still have treble
- If the phono pre-amp wasn't engaged then all you'd hear is treble because without RIAA equalisation there's very little bass from the groove of a disc
- If the cartridge was wired wrong you'd have a phasey sound, but still get treble

I can't imagine the tone arm tracking correctly if there's a stylus guard in place that hasn't been removed. Check it along with any dust/fluff on the stylus tip.

What's left then is either the stylus tip - a sapphire probably - isn't tracking the groove properly, which could be the sapphire missing from its mount, or there's a problem with the audio circuit in the pre-amp. Either way, unless there's some additional info you can throw at this, I would suspect a fault and be looking to get the gear swapped.

 

[Vik Iyer]

Thanks - the stylus tip had been dislodged a little by my faffing around so problem solved. Still mulling a pre amp!

 

[lucid]

At this level and just related to sound quality, then on a scale of 1-10 for effectiveness and value-for-money, a different pre-amp would rate as a lowly 1-2 compared to changing the cartridge which would rate as a 10.

Any decent budget phono stage worth buying is (or should be) fairly neutral. IOW it won't impose its own character on the sound, so it's not going to be a tool for changing the sonic presentation.

Things change a bit of course if you're trying to unshackle the USB recording feature from Sony's inhouse software solution. But that's more about ease-of-use.

Say you have £100 budget for either a pre-amp or a cartridge change and your aim is to get better sound. You could buy a Rega Foni Mini A2D for £95. It's probably about the best there is under £100 for sound quality, and it has a USB output. Now you can use anyone's software for vinyl ripping, but sonically it's going to expose the limits of the supplied cartridge just a little more readily than the built-in phono stage. Also you might find you lose just a tad of top end sparkle because the Sony pre-amp is voiced slightly brighter.

Changing the cartridge will yield bigger results. The reason is the shape of the stylus tip and how effective it is at tracking the groove without distortion and at digging out the detail from those tiny wiggles in plastic.

I've just looked it up. Your PSHX500 comes with a de-branded Audio Technica AT91 cartridge. They're £24 if you buy the AT version. It's a diamond at the end of the cantilever, and its shape is a cone - hence its a conical cartridge. Being a cone limits how much of the groove walls the stylus can contact, and if it can't reach parts where there's more information then you're not going to hear that stuff. There are also implications for how the stylus tip tracks the inner and outer groove walls. Stylus profiles in pictures here: Stylus Shape Information | Soundsmith (sound-smith.com)

What you hear with conical styli is some sibilance and a bit more tracking distortion. If you put that through a better phono pre-amp then you're going to hear those spitty esses and tracking errors more clearly.

Changing the cartridge to something with an elliptical stylus profile means a bigger and deeper contact area with the groove, and in the process better tracking of the inner groove so lower levels of distortion. A Goldring E3 (£99) and Ortofon Red 2M (£95) both have an elliptical stylus.

You're still going to have the issue of Sony's faffy software, but at least once you've jumped through their hoops then the recordings will sound noticeably better. Also, think about how often you'll rip vinyl versus how often you'll play an album. Is the tail wagging the dog?

Change the cartridge first so when you do finally change the pre-amp it has a better source signal to work it's magic on.

 

[Vik Iyer]

Thanks again for these really detailed replies. Lots to think about! Strangely because I am suddenly working from home loads more, I have actually been re-connecting with my CDs this past year and really noticing how much better the sounds is through an amp in comparison. It's not like I didn't the know this, but I guess I appreciate it more. When I had more time and freedom to listen to music, I guess I was more interested in whether I liked something rather than the sound quality. What's interesting is how much higher the amp volume needs to be between CD and vinyl. At CD, even 25% volume seems loud what with being in a semi detached maisonette. Yet on the vinyl I am easily hitting 75% volume. Is that standard or do you reckon something is still not right...

 

[lucid]

The volume difference is absolutely normal. If the vinyl groove was cut with the sort of energy levels sufficient to equal CD's line voltage then the stylus wouldn't be able to track it.

Being more interested in liking something (band / artist I guess you're saying) is absolutely the right approach IMO. Getting good sound quality is important; we want to hear more of what the band is doing musically to appreciate their talent, but it shouldn't overtake finding music that delights and excites you. My car stereo is nowhere near the quality of my home set up, but I still really enjoy listening to my favourite artists whilst driving. To me, that's the right way.

There is a limit of course. I'm not a fan of the mangling that high compression does to music. Apple iTunes used to be awful. YouTube and DAB Radio still is. They wreck the timing. It breaks my heart a little bit when I hear of someone whose main source of music is YouTube.

Equipment doesn't need to be very expensive to make a big difference to our enjoyment.