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Expressimo RB 250 mistracking issue

I have a mistracking issue with my Expressimo RB250 / Shelter 501 MK II combo.

I was away for 6 months and wasn't listening to my vinyl rig, now when I got back I noticed that my cartridge started to mistrack a couple of LPs I own.

Those LPs are Direct to Disk editions that have a few very dynamic passages recorded but the cartridge was tracking them fine before. Now it mistracks them (you can clearly hear it on a drums solo when a drummer hits snare drum). Also on a Hi-Fi News Test LP I can only successfully track tracks 6 and 7, but not 8 although I was able to tack #8 before.

So what could've go wrong? I tied to adjust anti-skating, but I increased it all the way to the top limit and it still mistracks. I remember before I had anti-skating set at around 1.4 - 1.5 on the scale from 0 to 2, now even if I move it all the way to 2 it still mistracks.

I'd highly appreciate if anyone could help/recommend what can be done to fix this? Is it a tonearm settings or cartridge problem or something else?

Thank you in advance.
jimtyrro
maktheknife
7 posts
 
Hi. I had a similar problem with my Expressimo wired RB300. All of a sudden some of my older LP's began skipping. There was a serious binding problem in the horizontal movement. I messed with the magnetic anti-skate and it did nothing. What my issued turned out to be was that inside, a piece of heat shrink worked it way from under the braided shield and rubbed up against the horizontal bearing. Small surgical scissor, fine tweezers and a steady hand fixed my problem.

Just an idea. It's easy to remove the bottom plug and just look.
04rdking's avatar
04rdking
178 posts
 
Cantilever "bushing/rubber" dried out?
jimtyrro OP
23 posts
 
Well, my problem is not that it skips a lot of LPs. Just 2 particular ones that have very dynamic passages with drum solo. Every other one are just fine.
jimtyrro OP
23 posts
 
Cantilever "bushing/rubber" dried out?

I guess this is not fixable?
dougdeacon
3,338 posts
 
Problems like the one described by Maktheknife happen with some frequency on certain Rega arms. I've seen several posts like his over the years.

The fact that yours is mistracking on only the most challenging LP's may simply indicate that the wire or insulation is out of position by only a small amount, so that the pressure it's applying is small. This might indeed cause audible mistracking on only the most challenging passages. If you read his post again you'll see that's just the symptom he had, "All of a sudden SOME of my ... LP's began skipping".

It can't hurt to check the routing of your tonearm wire and its condition. While you're at it, dismount and remount the cartridge from scratch - just to make sure everything is still set up properly.
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