Trusting your ears and knowing what you like to listen to are two very different subjects. Distinguishing fine differences in sound is difficult for humans because our audio memory is so short. Not only this but because of our brains ability to accommodate a system that sounds awful does not sound so bad after a while which is why you always trust your initial impression. Fortunately distortion being so dissonant is always easy to hear like the elephant in your garage is easy to see. Knowing these things makes you a much better listener. Most of what Cleeds thinks he hears is his brain screwing around with him assuming he has one.
Any pivoted offset tonearm that does not have anti skating can be thrown in the trash unless you want to jury rig a system for it. Turntable setup is not art, it is a science requiring extreme fastidiousness. There are lots of things brains can't do well which is why we have test records.
Raulruegas the best you can do is to set the bias so the stylus tracks the test record correctly. It is the best approximation you can get. Looking at the cantilever only gets you in the ballpark. This method will not work with very stiff cartridges like Koetsus. The other neat trick is to find an album with a blank side like Cleopatra by the Lumineers. You can get in the ballpark by adjusting the bias so the arm does not drift or drifts outward slightly when you play the blank. Never trust the scales on the tonearm. They are great for reference. For example if you are a cartridge jockey you record all the settings for each cartridge so you can return to them easily without having to go through the whole process again.
Any pivoted offset tonearm that does not have anti skating can be thrown in the trash unless you want to jury rig a system for it. Turntable setup is not art, it is a science requiring extreme fastidiousness. There are lots of things brains can't do well which is why we have test records.
Raulruegas the best you can do is to set the bias so the stylus tracks the test record correctly. It is the best approximation you can get. Looking at the cantilever only gets you in the ballpark. This method will not work with very stiff cartridges like Koetsus. The other neat trick is to find an album with a blank side like Cleopatra by the Lumineers. You can get in the ballpark by adjusting the bias so the arm does not drift or drifts outward slightly when you play the blank. Never trust the scales on the tonearm. They are great for reference. For example if you are a cartridge jockey you record all the settings for each cartridge so you can return to them easily without having to go through the whole process again.