It sounds like your cart is not aligned properly to me. WHat are you using for a your alignment tool?
Try to isolate the distotion:
Is the distotion comming from both channels? What do you hear when you play something very simple (like solo voice, or violin)?............ is it still present?
Does it only happen on musical peaks?
If so, you might be overloading some part of your gain stage.......... Can you adjust these parameters? What happens if you bypass your step-up?
Does the distortion happen in certain parts of the record (i.e. close to the end of a side)? ...... Could be too much Anti-skate. Try untwisting the lead-out wire in your JMW.
Hope some of this helps
Chris |
You may have damaged vinyl. I have some LPs which have poor sounding tracks that I suspect were damaged in the past by poorly set up turn tables. |
I'm not familiar with your cartridge, other than its name. However, I wonder if you have too much output for your phono stage. What is your preamp/phono stage and what is the rated output of the cartridge? If the distortion seems to be happening with "louder" music or passages, it could be an overload of the preamp's line stage from the RIAA output. I had exactly this problem with an ARC PH5 phono stage and a lesser preamp. When I upgraded to a VTL preamp that had tons more dynamic range, the problem went away in a way that seemed like a miracle. An alternative would have been to have ARC pad down the input to the phono stage (terminals are factory provided for that). I suppose it could have been done in a quicker/dirtier way with an atenuated cable of some sort, but I think would do your excellent phono setup a disservice. |
Does this only happen on used vinyl? If so it's a symptom of a worn/mistracked record. Nothing you can really do about it. |
it sounds like a cartridge problem to me too. an alignment issue would be the first place to check. |
Cmo
I have used the ortofon alignment tool (2 point) and the VPI (1 point). didn't seem to make any difference. Record proximity IE end of record makes no difference. It might happen anywhere on the record so i don't think it is anti skate, but will try anything at this point.
Pscialli & Cmo
It does seem to happen moreso on more "congested" songs rather than simple passages. AAMOF, simple passages might sound great in the same song. This makes me wonder about overload. Actually that is the exact word I would use to describe the sound that i am hearing. So you may be right. I can turn down the output on the phono stage via the output (volume) pots on the Wright phono stage. Thanks for the suggestion. Don't know why I didn't think of that. Duh
Onhwy61 & Hals den. Thanks. I've thought about the same thing but it seems odd that it is sporadic across the album. You may be right but I hope you're wrong. |
That was it. Overload. That was the word that kept running through my mind when I heard it but I never thought about the phono preamp overloading. Duh! it was turned down but not enough. The Wright has 65db gain w/o the 1:10 tranny. I've got it turned down as low as it will go now and the distortion has gone. At least it has on the 2 of the songs that were leading offenders.
Thanks a bunch |
Distortion can also be aggravated by too little vertical tracking force (VTF). I found this to be the case with a couple of cartridges I owned. In both cases, I was using an inaccurate measuring device. Once I got a more accurate stylus force gauge I was able to clear this up significantly. Finally, skating can cause distortion, but you'll typically hear it in a single channel when that's the case. Since it seems like overloading correction has solved the issue, this post may be moot, but hopefully still useful. |
Artemus, doesn't K and K have a 1:15 or 1:20 step-up? Might be your cheapest solution unless you can trade your 20XL in for a higher output cartridge. If it were me I'd try to keep the LO MC thing going since that's my preference. |
Dan ed
Wouldn't a 1:15 or 20 give more output? I was thinking 1:5 would be less, but maybe I'm thinking backwards.
Nonetheless the problem seems to have gone now that i have it turned down. |
NO, you're absolutely correct. I'm having more and more of these "senior moments" lately. So you may be able to just eliminate the step-up. Worth a shot. |
Dan ed, even though the Wright Phono preamp has 65 db gain and is able to accomidate the cartridge, when i tried a previous LOMC cart, I got a tube rush problem. However i think I had the cartridge loaded wrong due to my misunderstanding of loading. this may have exacerbated the problem. Maybe i'll try it without the tranny and with the proper loading and see what it does. But the problem does seem to be fixed at the moment. Thanks |
Remember, a LOT of moving coil cartridges suck in the tracking department. If you could get a hold of a Shure Era III, IV or V test record you could quantify your cartridge's trackability. They're a nice tool to have. Other test records have trackability tracks, but the Sures are the real obstacle courses.
Why don't youn try an excellent moving magnet, like the Stanton 881S, Pickering XSV3000 or any of the classics? They show up in eBay every now and then.
Also, the Goldring Eroica is a rather decent tracking MC.
Choices, choices...
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