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Stylus not tracking and sounds terrible

I haven't used my TT in about 6 months due to a remodeling project. The TT was not moved, just not used. Yesterday I fired it up, tried to play some new vinyl, and ran into a problem.

The sound is terrible, shrill and scratchy sounding with no bass. The stylus randomly skates and hops. I tried playing a couple of records I know sound great but the problem remained.

The VTF, VTA, and azimuth are set correctly. I swapped out cables to and from the TT to the phono amp but still have the problem. I tried balanced and single ended cables to my pre from the phono pre.

I tried increasing VTF, playing with the VTA, disconnecting my subs, nothing changed.

The TT is a VPI Aries 1, Benz-Micro LO cartridge, Pass Aleph Ono pre. I've owned all of them since new or almost new so it all has some years on it but it sounded great before. Could the cartridge go bad in 6 months by just sitting there unused?

I had a similar problem a while ago and determined it was vibration/resonance from my room. I have the Aries sitting on a Ginko cloud platform now and it is pretty well isolated.

Everything sounded great the last time I played music on it. The only thing that changed was the location of the phono pre. It used to sit next to the TT but now my ARC amp is in that place. Could the tube amp be doing something here? The TT is right next to it on the same shelf.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
nolacap
nolacap OP
84 posts
 
smrex13, I think you are correct. I took the arm off to get a closer look at the cantilever. It is slanted so far to one side it seems to be in contact with the metal housing.

There is what looks like a very small adjustment screw on one side of the motor housing just below where the cantilever connects to the motor. Can this screw be used to align the cantilever? The screw is below the wood housing so I think everything would have to be removed from the wood housing to get to it.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
So its always been crooked. Sounds like you've had a bad cartridge for a long time and just didn't know it. Probably the whole motor mechanism was improperly installed, or knocked out of position somehow. But for a long time although it was crooked at least the cantilever was able to move freely so it would play. Until for whatever reason after the remodel it moved just enough so now the cantilever is hitting the body.

When this happens it can't move enough so there goes your bass. With the cantilever in contact with the body its picking up all the vibration and noise of the body. So there's your screeching. The rubber cantilever suspension isn't able to absorb any shocks from vibrations or even slightly warped records so all the shock goes right into the arm causing it to bounce so there's your random skipping. 

That may be a set screw you're seeing. Whatever, main thing is you can probably go back to using that cartridge if you can just get the motor back and held in alignment. 

Ideally I would upgrade to a newer better cartridge. Or if you like it, it could probably be repaired and re-tipped and would be like new. Better than new, from the sounds of it. Or with steady hands, a tiny vise, and some tweezers you could probably line it back up, drip some super glue on there and call it good. Probably better than what you had before! 
nolacap OP
84 posts
 
Millercarbon, great diagnosis. Thank you.

Benz doesn't retip this model any longer. They offer a rebate if you buy the new version. I'll ask them if they give the rebate for a damaged unit. If they do, I'll break out the super glue and give it a shot.

The cantilever was always at an angle, noticeable to see but it always tracked fine. I always noticed a slight L-R imbalance on some records. Maybe I've been enjoying a broken cartridge all these years.

slaw's avatar
slaw
21,601 posts
 
The fact that we NOW KNOW the stylus has been crooked...……..

Com’on OP shouldn’t that been a major consideration initially?

You're on my "Ignore list"
nolacap OP
84 posts
 
Thanks Slaw. The cantilever always seemed to tilt left of center. Not like it is now, but tilting to the left a bit. But it sounded good.

I guess I should have tossed it in the trash the first time I noticed it wasn't perfectly straight.

Lesson learned. Thanks Slaw!
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