Avid Pellar and MC cart - distorted and muffled sound, but why?

[terataz]

Hi i've got myself an Avid Pellar phono pre-amp which i normally use with a mm cart.

Recently I've bought an mc cart, Audio Technica AT-33ptg/ii .

I've aligned the cart using the Technics Arc protractor present here https://www.vinylengine.com/cartridg...tractors.shtml (my tt is a Technics 1210)

and set the switches on the phono to MC (as suggested here http://avidhifi.com/images/pellar_manualv1.1e.pdf), then I've pressed play.

All I could hear was a very muffled, distorted sound. I've tried various switch combination, mounting and remounting the cart, but no luck.

Then i've read again the manual and noticed that while the input resistance in the phono input is at 47K Ohms, the cart has a DC resistance of 10 Ohms (https://eu.audio-technica.com/cartridges/AT33PTGII).

Now, i know that by using loading plugs I could match the resistance for a better sound, but after checking on different forum, i've assumed that was suggested, but not strictly necessary and i should at least be able to hear a clean, decent sound.


What do you guys think? Could that sort of distorted sound be an issue with alignment or really be something to do with different resistance?


I've had the cart checked by a friend and it's fine.