Crackling distortion

could be a number of things, but since you seem to have aligned the cartridge properly and the needle is new, I doubt its due to damage to the stylus. Your cartridge may be overloading your preamp on loud transients. If your needle was damaged, you would likely hear a problem all the time. some carts cant track high transients, so it could be a mistracking for that reason. Have you tried a test record to see how the cartridge tracks various levels? what is your phono preamp?

My phono pre is a DV P-75 (actually its my friends). But I have it set for my low output MC. But that's all irrelevant. It ended up i had not cleanrd it very well, the there was a caked on piece of vinyl on the stylus. I tried cleaning it with Last and lo and behold the sound was great smooth as butta' again.

I guess I'm still too new a newb at this vinyl stuff!

Last lemming, glad to hear that your problem is cleaned up (pun - LOL). I have a similar rig: VPI Classic and DV 20X2 HO (back-up carty). Just a Q and and 2 "fyi's."

The Q is how did you adjust azimuth?

The fyi's are the Sound Smith Counter-Intuitive counter-weight thingy greatly simplifies the process of setting azimuth and VTF, and its cheap (about $65). You may want to consider buying it.

Also, Peter Ledermann of Sound Smith, a pretty well respected guy in the audio/cartridge/TT segment of our hobby, disagrees with VPI's advice on setting VTF and AS. In short, he told me that setting VTF on the low end of the recommended range is better as long as the carty is tracking ok.

He also thinks AS should be used, but I honestly don't know how to apply his advice and I don't have the patience to learn. So, I just put one of those little rubber donut ring thingys on the business end of the AS device.

I honestly can't say the sound is better, but I am hoping to get more life out of my stylus. When Peter did my last re-tip, he commented that the sylus wear pattern suggested that AS was off. I'll report back later when I do my next retip.

In the meantime, I recommend that you give Peter a call, if for no ther reason than to buy the Counter-Intuitive device. He's a great guy and is always happy to give advice.

FWIW. Cheers, BIF

Bif,

Thanks for the advice. I set the azimuth by the rod method by using an old drafting lead that you have to sharpen. This gave me a long overhang for a bit more accuracy sharp points at either end to measure against.

I have Fremer's disc and a digital multimeter. I saw the device for the counterweight and I figured I'd use the DMM once I got the counterweight for setting my azimuth more correctly.

What's your thoughts on the VTA. Where have you found the best setting.

Butt end up. Adust by ear.