Will fine tune adjustments with protractor help with "brightness?"

One thing I learned as a physician, even though I spent most of my professional life doing research, is to listen carefully to the patient's description of his illness.  In this case, the OP is telling us that the character of the sound changes from bright to less bright, over the course of playing a single LP, from outer grooves to inner grooves.  To me, that does not sound like a problem that is primary to the cartridge. Albeit, some other cartridge might be more or less prone to produce the same phenomenon in the OP's current set-up. But first, I would look at alignment.

Years ago, I had a similar problem, only in reverse. That is, the high frequencies sounded more natural at the beginning of the album, and got a bit brighter as it approached the end of the lp. I too, am suspecting this might be coming from the cartridge itself. Not sure though. Like some other posters said, try lowering the tonearm in small increments, changing the VTA, and see what happens.

Excellent advice everyone. It's a possibility my ears do deceive me :)  I'm going to reset the cart at some time for another listen. I appreciate everyone's input as I'm only 3 months into my vinyl setup, so things are very new to me. The good thing is, I'm enjoying the sound a lot and enjoying putting together a nice collection of vinyl. 

Thanks!

@avanti1960 thanks for chiming in. I appreciate your input. I'm still considering the mint tractor although it would be nice to have a protractor that's more universal? 

My feeling that you’re looking for problem where should be no problem.

You’re spot on with Technics overhang gauge that comes with your turntable and if you stylus is under the mark on that white plastic Technics Overhang Gauge then the alignment is correct. You have the instruction manual how to set-up this tonearm.

Technics presentation on almost every high-end show was made with $5000 ART-1000 cartridge with the same alignment on Technics tonearm.

Do you think Technics tonearm designers can’t hear what you can hear ?

I will address this question to all others, it’s a modern high-end turntable

P.S. Technics phono cable is a low capacitance cable as much as the every good phono cable on the market. There is absolutely nothing to change with this turntable for a person who just started the journey into analog. The rest is audiophilia.


I've been using Technics tonearms and Technics turntables for professional needs for over 22 years using Technics alignment. There is nothing to worry about with GR, i believe.