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Harshness/Distortion Question - Newbie

I'm new to turntables. I recently purchased a Music Hall MMF 2.2. Using the stock Music Hall "tracker" cartridge and have it hooked up to a Pro-Ject speedbox. I'm running it through a phono stage integrated into my Adcom GTP-500 receiver.

I've noticed with some recordings (Sinatra at the Sands, for example) that when I play it at modest volume levels I get distortion at the high end that I normally would not get at the same volume on my system listening to CDs. It's the sound you generally associate when you play a cheap boombox too loud, if that makes any sense. The record is in "ok" shape.

I suppose I am wondering if this distortion at the upper (treble) end is something associated with vinyl, or perhaps a limitation of my cartridge and/or lack of dedicated phono amp. (Note: I'm planning on buying a dedicated cambridge audio phono amp 640p when I can afford it).

Thanks for the help as always.

David
dmloring
hifitime
715 posts
 
The only time the harshness could be tied to vinyl,is a bad pressing,production problem,or bad job on the engineers part.Its not a characteristic of vinyl thats done right.
daverz
487 posts
 
Vinyl is quite capable of reproducing the sound of harsh master tapes, some pressings are just harsh sounding, and some cartridges are quite capable of producing harsh sounds all on their own.

Hanaleimike's advice is solid. If tweaking cartridge setup doesn't work, then consider a new cartridge (I would go MC, myself) and/or a new phono preamp. But don't do that until you've learned cartridge setup basics.
hifitime
715 posts
 
Also besides the above mentioned,usually the cheaper the cartridge and stylus combination,the more harshness, distortion,plus other sonic problems.
dmloring OP
34 posts
 
Thanks for everyones help. The cartridge was installed by
the manufacturer. I think it's less likely that it's an allingnment
issue because the record sounded fine when I played it last a few days ago. Perhaps static buildup. I've bought a cleaning system the other day to try to keep my vinyl clean.

How do you clean a stylus?

Could tracking weight have anything to do with it (I can obviously experiment wth that).

Does distortion tend to increase more as you increase volume as compared to CDs?

Thanks for helping a newbie...
mlsstl
1,409 posts
 
The simple test would be to play the record on another system of known quality and see if the poor sound quality is still present.

If it is, you simply have a bad pressing. One of the sad realities of vinyl is there are a lot of poorly pressed records. There are a lot of spots in the process where things can go wrong. If nothing else, stampers deteriorate as they are used and someone is going to get the records from the end of a production run!

That's a different issue than a record that has been poorly produced or mastered.

So, play the record on another system. If it still sounds bad, you simply have a bad record. If it sounds fine, go back to your system and look at alignment issues and also check the stylus under a scope for dirt or wear.

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