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I am at the end of my rope, please help

I have a problem that I can not solve and makes no sense to me at all.
My right channel is stronger than my left by a large margin. I can plug my tonearm cable directly into a Fozgometer (measures left and right output) and I get a substantially stronger signal on the right side. I confirmed this with my Voltmeter to make sure there was not a problem with the Fozgometer. So, as far as I can tell, this narrows the problem down to the Cart, Tonearm, Tonearm wire or the table.

Here is what I have tried:
1. Changed Azimuth in both directions. Small change but still much stronger on the right side.
2. Changed antiskating. Very little change.
3. replaced the cartridge. No Change.
4. replaced the tonearm and cartridge. No Change.
5. replaced the tonearm, cartridge and tonearm wire. No change.
6. I have used a second test record. No Change
My turntable is perfectly level.
I simply do not see how this is possible! I have an $83,000 system that I can not listen to. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

My system:
DaVinci Turntable > Lyra Titan i > Schroeder Reference tonearm > Manley Steelhead > Stealth Indra cables > VTL 450 amps > Stealth Mlt speaker cables > Vienna acoustic Mahler speakers
audioraider
hifihvn
943 posts
 
I don't know if this could be what happened.A lot of people just turn of the power switch when plugging or unplugging interconnects.A lot of the time,there is a voltage/current difference between the two components.If your plugging a RCA plug into something,the center pin may make contact first.This will feed that voltage/current difference to whatever that IC is plugged into. This could damage a cartridge coil,the gain stage at the input(especially solid state),from that voltage/current that may be there.It's always best to unplug everything first,before swapping cables,or components.I don't know if this is what happened,but if this was done,it could have damaged the coils.With winter,static electricity from us touching the RCA plug,catching a small spark,will also do it (damage) .Touch the metal case first,to discharge any static buildup we may have in our body.I hope its something simple,but just want people to give this a thought.
hifihvn
943 posts
 
Also,set your meter to a low volt setting.With your Fozgometer turned on,touch one test lead to the left channel center connection of the RCA input on Fozgometer, and the other lead to the RCA outer shield ring,make sure it reads 0 volts between the two on that RCA.Repeat the same for the right channel.This is to make sure it(Fozgometer)doesn't have a problem(short feeding voltage to cartridge),that could have damaged your cartridges.
audioraider OP
8 posts
 
I have thought from the beginning that it was a tonearm cable problem. The Schroeder tonearms use very very tiny copper wire with a clear coating. The wire runs directly from the clips to the RCA plugs. The wire sticks out of the tonearm in two locations and would be very easy to damage. If some of the plastic coating was scratched off you would never see it, even with a magnifying glass.

Here is the problem; when I disconnect the cart, the meter reads perfect continuity from red clip to pos, green clip to neg on the RCA and white clip to pos and blue clip to neg on the RCA BUT when I hook up the cart, the red then has continuity to both pos and neg on the RCA. The green also has continuity to both pos and neg on the RCA. The same goes for the white and blue on the other RCA. This leads me to believe that the cart has the short. With the cart disconnected, I also checked to see if there was any continuity from each clip lead to the base of the tonearm, thinking that a wire may be shorting to ground, and found no problem.
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Audioraider 12-08-10: Here is the problem; when I disconnect the cart, the meter reads perfect continuity from red clip to pos, green clip to neg on the RCA and white clip to pos and blue clip to neg on the RCA BUT when I hook up the cart, the red then has continuity to both pos and neg on the RCA. The green also has continuity to both pos and neg on the RCA. The same goes for the white and blue on the other RCA. This leads me to believe that the cart has the short. With the cart disconnected, I also checked to see if there was any continuity from each clip lead to the base of the tonearm, thinking that a wire may be shorting to ground, and found no problem.
As I said in an earlier post:
Almarg 12-07-10: Since there are far fewer turns in the coils of a lomc compared to a mm, the resistance will be much less in a lomc. As a very rough ballpark guess, perhaps a few ohms in the case of the lomc, and many hundreds of ohms or more in the case of a mm. Depending on the resolution of your meter, and the resistance scale you are using, the resistance of the lomc may be low enough to appear to be a short even though it is not.
Are you certain that the "continuity" you are seeing when the cartridge is connected is in fact a zero ohm short, or might you in fact be reading the very low resistance of a few ohms that I would expect the LOMC cartridge's coils to normally have?

Regards,
-- Al
hifihvn
943 posts
 
Almarg talked about doing damage to the cartridge with an ohmmeter.The only thing that I can think of without measuring is(write color code and position down first), switch the left and right leads at the cartridge like someone mentioned above.The left and right plus(+),and the left and right(-)negative.That is a good way of telling if one channel in your cartridge is shorted.If the sound coming out of your left channel becomes the loud one,then I would guess the cartridge is the problem,minus tracking problems.I've never heard a tracking problem make a large volume difference.Again,using the meter may be causing *damage*,and especially an analog meter,with a dial gauge.Like Almarg said,the meter your using may appear to be showing a short.There should be continuity if I'm reading your post right.Again,the meter may be *harmful*.That's why I'd go with the left and right channels swap at the cartridge.And if the left gets loud after swap,it may be the cartridge,but I can't say for sure.
I don't want you to cause damage to the cartridge if it may
be something else being overlooked.This is a mystery.
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