Music Hall MMF-5

I just got a Music Hall MMF-5 off eBay. Guess what...not terribly impressed. It has a hum, although not overwhelming. The motor make a slight noise...also not overwhelming. The arm lift mechanism is a little jumpy at the top of its motion and it moves the arm backward when lifting. When I let it down, it's not in the same place as when I lifted it. Besides all that, its sound is edgy...although I suppose that could be the cartridge or perhaps even the tracking force. I set it with the markings on the counterweight, as opposed to a gauge. Just felt like reporting my impression.

:cornut: Rock on...

Thats suprising to hear because its supposed to be one of the better lower end units. I've been considering the MMF-5SE and the MMF-7
as well as the Project-5.

It sounds like your getting some feed back. Do you have a ground wire?

I do have a ground wire. I've tried attaching it to the preamp and also tried attaching it to the separate phono stage. It's on the phono stage now. The hum increases when I move the tone arm closer to the spindle...decreases when I move it away. I can't hear the hum from more than a few feet, though...and it's very hard to hear when the music is playing.

I've always attached my ground to my receiver or preamp.

Go to the Music Hall web site and email Roy Hall. He's very good about responding to emails that evening or the next day. Explain the problem, he may have a solution for you. I've emailed him a few times and he has always returned my emails in less than 12 hours.

Grado Prestige is known for this "hum" especially towards the center. Back when I used to have a Grado Silver, I had my TT setup next to a CRT TV. When the TV was turned on, hum had increased ten-fold. Also, never use your counterweight grid to determine your VTF. Always use a gauge. readings on the counterweight is meanless and only useful as reference to how much you had adjusted.
Grado is a good cart, but it never tracked well on high freq (Piano music) on my Pro-Ject 8.6cc arm. That arm deserves a better cart in my opinion, such as Denon DL-301MK2

Good luck,

JRA

A tracking gauge is ordered and ships out today. Roy Hall replied to my email (which was a nice gesture on his part) and suggested I have an unshielded cartridge, before I mentioned anything about the Grado cartridge. The Grado Red is temporarily replaced by a Shure M97XE and the hum is gone. I guess I'm now cartridge shopping.

I also think I owe the MMF-5 an apology. My problems revolved around that cartridge. The Shure actually sounds better to my ears than the Grado, even if I disregard the hum.

Roy's a stand up guy and stands by his products. He always replies to his Email. Thats why when I buy a new TT I'll probably go with the MMF 7SE over Pro-ject and Clear-Audio.