Is LP distortion the record or the cartridge?

Dear @mglik  : According with a research made years ago ( taking care to clean the stylus tip and LPs. ) a good stylus tip starts to show deteroration signs at around 500 hours of play and it will be safe and will performs as " new " till it has 1K hours of play, after that time the stylus tip  increment the " velocity " of its damages and after 1.5K is time to think that any time soon we have to think in a retip to fix it and impedes that that stylus tip increment its damage and more important the LP damage . Your cartridge has not 1.5K hours but 2K hours.

I already gave you my advise that even that you don't listen any kind of distortions with new LPs this with a 2K hours of play cartridge is making an irreversible damage to all what you play with it.

Is up to you, are your LPs not mine.

@no_regrets  one of the best stylus cleaner is the Lyra one that comes with the Lyra cartridges when you buy it but you can buy the cleaner alone.

R.

I actually only have about 1000 hours on my Shilabi. That is about 40 days of 4 hours a day. If the stylus is going bad, that is an awfully short time for a $3000 cartridge. @rauliruegas are you saying that a stylus is only good for about a year?.

Dear @mglik : You posted :

" The cartridge probably has about 2000 hours on it. "

1K hours is way different. In normal conditions and with that amount of hours seems to me that the culprit of those distortions is not the cartridge.
The cartridge could be only if it’s showing a problem with its suspension or that for whatever reason the stylus tip is in someway " loose " with the cantilever. Both conditions are not present very often in a cartridge as the one you own but could happens and by coincidence started with your new unit because before it you did not experienced that developed distortions.

" On dynamic peaks..... the sound breaks up and produces distortion. "

" Old vocals and piano are frequently bad "

" I really only noticed this distortion after inserting my new.."

After all what I said and posted to you the other alternative is that your new unit is not up to its new condition specs.

Now that I remember could be a third possibility and this is the cable tonearm that some Triplanar owners warned that if it’s not in the precise rigth position will not " track " as should be. 

R.

Check your anti-skate: very important. Are you hearing distortion mainly in one channel? Also you should use a a special abrasive stylus brush periodically to remove built up debris from your needle. Carefully back to front strokes. Actually you math is off a bit. 40 days with 4 hours a day equals 160 hours not 1000.

Yes , the Lyra stylus cleaner is excellent and they supply it with a great brush. It is a bit pricey but IMHO worth it. Many styli are held on only by a gob of glue. Many solvents will attack the glue and then I think you know what happens. The Lyra cleaner will not attack the glue.

mglik has already discovered that his problem is worn records. Old records that distort like that are usually very dirty. So if you are going to play old or used records cleaning them thoroughly is crucial to the life of your stylus. I would play them with a less expensive cartridge that has a replaceable stylus Like a MM Audio Technica. I will not buy used records for this reason. I have seen enough to know you do not want to trust anyone else's record hygiene.