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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
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,810 posts
 
I had the same type of thing happen with an Ortofon MC3. The cantilever was always a little bit skewed to one side but it played perfectly for years on my second rig. Then I noticed the skew angle increased a tiny bit more and by the next day it was worse with tracking issues, channel imbalance, sibilance and reduced bass. If you are immeasurably careful with a needle-nosed pliers, you might be able to bend it back into position.
EDIT - I see updated posts above.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Get the darn amp away from the turntable! 
nolacap OP
84 posts
 
I'll be moving the amp. I moved it next to the TT temporarily while waiting for some longer interconnects. What could the amp be doing to the cartridge to move the cantilever though?

There was electrical work done during the renovation. Power was turned on and off etc. but nothing in the system was unplugged.


mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
There are very powerful magnets inside the  cartridge. Amps have large transformers in them that generate strong magnetic fields. Need I say more?
lewm
13,095 posts
 
mijo, I very much doubt your hypothesis, if you're implying that there is magnetic pull between the amplifier power transformer and the cantilever. Transformers do generate EMI (electro-magnetic interference) but not very much magnetism. And cantilevers are not ferrous.  Could EMI from the amplifier be degrading the sound? Yes, and maybe that is what you meant.  If so, sorry.  EMI usually causes problems by feeding back into the AC supply at the wall outlet.  Try plugging the amplifier into a different outlet, if it is now sharing with the turntable and/or phono stage.

Seems there are possibly two issues which may or may not be related.  The cantilever is not straight, but it was not straight for a long time before the sound went bad.  Possibly it bent past some critical angle and now is hopelessly out of line with the internal generator of the cartridge, or possibly EMI from the nearby amplifier (or some other undiscovered source of interference) is the culprit.  But anyway, the cartridge is now broken, is it not?
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