amazing transformation...how?

Hi

Could this be a " mind set' situation?

On your initial listening session you were excited and expecting great things only to be underwhelmed and dissapointed. 

When returning a few months later you were expecting to dissapointed and had set yourself very low expectations only to find the sound not as bad as you remembered.

Our mind and memory can play tricks on us.

Mark

Hello! According to you, the sound was so terrible that it is unlikely that the player itself could have had such an effect. The cartridge may be special if it was in unsatisfactory condition. But if you haven’t touched it all this time, then it’s unlikely to get any better. You didn't mention which phono stage you connected it to or which amplifier. Think, could something have changed in them? Did something happen, for example, to the power supply in the apartment over the past year and a half? How warm was each component including cables? And were there any changes in the room itself that could affect the reflections? Most likely you would have noticed this on the CD, but what if? This is some kind of miracle.

Oh, and you can also assume that everything seemed so high and sharp compared to your previous cartridge and turnable. And after a year and a half, that sound was already forgotten and you looked at the new system with an unbiased eye.

And two more versions. 1. You said that exactly a year and a half has passed, not a year. This means that it was a different season of the year. This means the air humidity could change greatly. Humidity affects the static on records, as well as the speed of sound waves. Many audiophiles notice a strong difference in sound depending on humidity and correct this with humidifiers, since the problem is dry air. 2. Physiological changes. Hearing can be affected by blood pressure. Your hearing can also deteriorate if, for example, you work in a noisy manufacture or listen to music loudly on headphones.

Sorry for the tirade.

This one is simple. After listening exclusively to CD's for a year and a half, almost anything will sound good.

My VPI Scout was real particular about the cart.  I never fell in love with it because it was soooo fussy.  Even the record clamp seemed to suck the life out of the music.  And I never found a cart that  I loved with it. So it's gone, life is too short.