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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
 
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
21,566 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!
Post removed 
nolacap OP
84 posts
 
Thanks Elizabeth. I tried this and was able to coax it back to center but now only have sound from one channel. Good sound, but only from the right channel.

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