"Running in" a new cartridge - what exactly does it mean?

[Phil Lawton]

Interesting to see what I'd thought was also in the heads of everyone else, i.e. nobody knows.

I do know that it sounds better now than when first installed...the soundstage has more depth and there's that indefinable "audio umami" thing going on. But after watching the Ortofon video where a cartridge is taken to pieces, it's hard to see what could possibly become "run in" to the point where the output improves.

One of those inexplicable things, I suppose, like the moon being exactly the right size and the right distance from the Earth to allow it to create solar eclipses or the logic-defying fact that Bananarama ever got a recording contract.

[Firebottle]

.... or the logic-defying fact that Bananarama ever got a recording contract.

[Pigmy Pony]

Interesting to see what I'd thought was also in the heads of everyone else, i.e. nobody knows.

I do know that it sounds better now than when first installed...the soundstage has more depth and there's that indefinable "audio umami" thing going on. But after watching the Ortofon video where a cartridge is taken to pieces, it's hard to see what could possibly become "run in" to the point where the output improves.

One of those inexplicable things, I suppose, like the moon being exactly the right size and the right distance from the Earth to allow it to create solar eclipses or the logic-defying fact that Bananarama ever got a recording contract.

No mystery there - Bananarama were marginally less shit than the other girl groups. Sometimes that's enough.