revitalizing rubber in record player cartridges and 45 adaptors.

[panthera]

Of course,

there is also the factor that Magnavox tried hard to match the components carefully to each other.
Ceramic pickups are naturally inclined towards more base and less treble than are magnetics, and Magnavox designed the curves in their amps to match the specific characteristics of their individual cartridges.

The advice to go with a Shure is good, tho' I think you'd have to put in a pre-amp and then run it through a normal line input, else the RIAA curves would be doubled, no?

 

[davek]

Yeah, if you wanted to play a regular turntable through a stereo console, you would need a preamp and line inputs.

 

[panthera]

I did exchange the ceramic

cartridge in a later Micromatic for a Shure (M3?, don't recall at this precise point, but it was one suggested for such swaps).

Balance wasn't a big problem, and I just slapped a quick, home built pre-amp into the base of the turntable, running the leads then into the Magnavox Tape In aux. on the back.

There's no doubt that a Micromatic can handle it, the compliance is there and the automatic cycle trip is constant force, so anti-skating didn't make a difference, either.

 

[sudsmaster]

I'd rather keep the original configuration since I use the Mag to play 78's as well, so the flip stylus comes in handy for that. The 78's do not sound unbalance, but the 33's do. I have tried a number of fresh needles but the cartridge is still bass-heavy for 33's.

The FM stereo section has proper bass/treble balance, so it's not the amp, per se.