Cartridge fresh out of the box

2-18-09: Cerrot
But, when he plays mono, the level is the same. Couldn't one of the grounds on the cartridge be loose?

Actually, he said he put on a mono record and hit the mono button on his amp. I'm thinking the mono button on an amp is just going to combine the channels anyway so any volume difference will be hidden.

Perhaps one wrong setting may not be enough to produce such channel imbalance, but combine wrong azimuth, too much or too little anti-aliasing, mis-aligned cartridge, the turntable not leveled, too much or too little tracking force, etc., and it's possible that all this may cause one channel to sound louder than the other.

Also, this channel imbalance could easily be one of the cartridge leads not making enough contact because is either fractured or not seated well.

These wrong settings may cause a singer's voice to be positioned 2/3 to the right or left, instead of in the center of the soundstage.

Best,

iSanchez

Slightly or significantly?

Many thanks for the responses. Rather than waste mote time on a futile exercise, I got in touch with the distributor and he suspected a faulty cartridge. So a replacement is on the way.

Thanks again guys.

beck